Apple has announced that it is to invest €1.7 billion in two new European data centres to power its online services, such as the iTunes Store, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri.
The new facilities will be in Athenry, county Galway, and Jutland, Denmark.
Both facilities will run entirely on renewable power and the company said that it will work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future. Apple said that the facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data centre.
“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
European jobs
In its announcement, Apple said that it supports nearly 672,000 European jobs, including 530,000 jobs directly related to the development of iOS apps. The company directly employs 18,300 people across 19 European countries and has added over 2,000 jobs in the last 12 months alone. Last year, Apple said that it spent more than €7.8 billion with European companies and suppliers helping build Apple products and support operations around the world.
The 166,000 square metre facilities are expected to begin operations in 2017 and include designs with additional benefits for their communities.
Community support
In Athenry, the company said that it would recover land that had been previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees and restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest. The project will also provide an outdoor education space for local schools, as well as a walking trail for the community.
In Viborg, Denmark, Apple will eliminate the need for additional generators by locating the data centre adjacent to one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations. The facility is also designed to capture excess heat from equipment inside the facility and conduct it into the district heating system to help warm homes in the neighbouring community.
“We believe that innovation is about leaving the world better than we found it, and that the time for tackling climate change is now,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives. “We’re excited to spur green industry growth in Ireland and Denmark and develop energy systems that take advantage of their strong wind resources. Our commitment to environmental responsibility is good for the planet, good for our business and good for the European economy.”
DC destination
The decision to place this facility in Ireland is a strong support for a view expressed by the Irish vice president for Schneider Electric, Vincent Barro, who told TechTrade in an interview that Ireland was one of the key markets in Europe when it comes to data centres.
“When you look at the investments being made in Ireland, positioned as it is with regard to foreign direct investment, behind London, Singapore and Hong Kong, it proves that it is the right place to be,” said Barro.
Despite this positive move to site this facility here, concerns have been expressed for the future of such facilities in Ireland. These concerns have been raised by security professionals who have said that more needs to be done by government to protect critical infrastructure such was power and water supplies to protect existing and future investments of this kind in Ireland.
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