Early this year, Steve Jobs talked about what powers iCloud during his WWDC keynote . It is a huge data center in Maiden, North Carolina that is 500,000 square feet and is about five times the size of the company’s existing Silicon Valley data center. Also, it costed $1 billion to build, which is twice what Google and Microsoft generally invest in their cloud data centers.
Today, The Charlotte Observer reports that Apple has begun work on a solar farm adjacent to its massive new data center in Maiden, North Carolina. According to the report, Catawba County permits have been issued giving Apple approval to begin preparations for the solar farm. When asked about the project, the company declined to comment. If this report turns out to be true, it just goes to show how much Apple cares about the environment. They clearly do care! County engineer, Toni Norton, said more information about Apple’s plans would be available when the company applies for a building permit.
The new solar farm is likely generate a significant amount of power for the facility, although Catawba County officials are yet to see building plans. Local permits show that the lot approved is 171 acres of vacant land on Startown Road that Apple has acquired. In addition, according to the report, engineering plans have yet to show details about the solar farm.
The project is code named as ”Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded” and it had previously been revealed that the data center was codenamed “Project Dolphin.” Definitely, sounds like an Apple project to me. ;)
