Earlier this year, Apple announced that as part of an effort to power all of its data centers with 100% renewable energy it would be building a second 20-megawatt solar farm a few miles away from its new Maiden, North Carolina data center. The new solar farm would complement the previously announced 20-megawatt facility that appears to be nearing completion directly across the street from the data center.
Solar panels at Apple's first North Carolina solar farm (Source: Jeremy Detter/Hickory Daily Record)
The location of the second solar farm was not immediately revealed at that time, but the Hickory Daily Record now reports (via 9to5Mac) that Apple has just purchased 200 acres land for the solar farm at a cost of $3 million. The plot is located nearly 15 miles from the data center and is being co-located with a new North Carolina Data Campus designed to attract other companies in need of data center capacity.
Apple recently closed on the land purchase that includes a tract of 218.885 acres and another tract of 0.251 acres, according to deeds and a plat book at the Catawba County Register of Deeds. [...]
The Conover site is the only other property Apple now owns in the area in addition to the main data center campus and solar farm in Maiden. With the two solar farms and a bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation, it will be the largest non-utility installation in the country, according to Apple. The company expects to generate 124 million kWh a year, which would power the equivalent of 10,874 homes, Apple says on its website.
Several local governments have banded together to create the new North Carolina Data Campus, which has purchased an additional 55 acres for its purposes at the site. Facebook and Microsoft had reportedly looked at the site as a potential data center, but ultimately selected other locations due to a lack of existing infrastructure. The new data campus entity will work to provide the necessary infrastructure in order to make the site more appealing to other companies.
Tuesday November 19, 2024 12:12 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Barclays analyst Tom O'Malley and his colleagues recently traveled to Asia to meet with various electronics manufacturers and suppliers. In a research note this week, outlining key takeaways from the trip, the analysts said they have "confirmed" that a fourth-generation iPhone SE with an Apple-designed 5G modem is slated to launch towards the end of the first quarter next year. In line with previo...
Sunday November 17, 2024 5:18 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple released the AirTag in April 2021, so it is now three over and a half years old. While the AirTag has not received any hardware updates since then, a new version of the item tracking accessory is rumored to be in development.
Below, we recap rumors about a second-generation AirTag.
Timing
Apple is aiming to release a new AirTag in mid-2025, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman....
Sunday November 17, 2024 3:03 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
While the Logitech MX Master 3 is a terrific mouse for the Mac, reports claiming that Apple CEO Tim Cook prefers that mouse over the Magic Mouse are false.
The Wall Street Journal last month published an interview with Cook, in which he said he uses every Apple product every day. Soon after, The Verge's Wes Davis attempted to replicate using every Apple product in a single day. During that...
Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that debuted earlier in September. iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 come three weeks after the launch of iOS 18.1.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS 17.7.2 for...
Wednesday November 20, 2024 3:42 am PST by Tim Hardwick
AT&T has begun displaying "Turbo" in the iPhone carrier label for customers subscribed to its premium network prioritization service, according to reports on Reddit. The new indicator seems to have started appearing after users updated to iOS 18.1.1, but that could be just coincidence.
Image credit: Reddit user No_Highlight7476
The Turbo feature provides enhanced network performance through ...
Monday November 18, 2024 1:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
In a research note with Hong Kong-based investment bank Haitong today, obtained by MacRumors, Apple analyst Jeff Pu said he agrees with a recent rumor claiming that the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" will be around 6mm thick.
"We agreed with the recent chatter of an 6mm thickness ultra-slim design of the iPhone 17 Slim model," he wrote.
If that measurement proves to be accurate, there would be ...
Tuesday November 19, 2024 10:52 am PST by Juli Clover
The iOS 18.1.1, iPadOS 18.1.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 updates that Apple released today address JavaScriptCore and WebKit vulnerabilities that Apple says have been actively exploited on some devices.
With the JavaScriptCore vulnerability, processing maliciously crafted web content could lead to arbitrary code execution. The WebKit vulnerability had the same issue with maliciously crafted...
If they really wanted to generate some power, they'd built a big coal power plant right next to the data center. The smog will keep people from getting to close to the data center
Can't wait to see how many acres of forest will be bulldozed for Apple's next "green" energy source.
Do your homework so you don't appear to be stupid. I drive by the site on my way yo Atlanta on a regular basis. Much of the site was fields. The number of trees that came down was minimal. The yellow outline is what Apple bought. Many of the trees are still there.
