Apple’s data centers now running on 100% renewable energy

Bloomberg notes that in Apple’s environmental update, a 100-acre solar farm next to its largest data center, in Maiden, North Carolina, became fully operational in December.

Our goal is to power every facility at Apple entirely with energy from renewable sources — solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. So we’re investing in our own onsite energy production, establishing relationships with suppliers to procure renewable energy off the grid, and reducing our energy needs even as our employee base grows.

Our investments are paying off. We’ve already achieved 100 percent renewable energy at all of our data centers, at our facilities in Austin, Elk Grove, Cork, and Munich, and at our Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. And for all of Apple’s corporate facilities worldwide, we’re at 75 percent, and we expect that number to grow as the amount of renewable energy available to us increases. We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple.

The move to 100% renewable energy for its data centers represents the completion of a commitment the company made last May to address criticism from Greenpeace over its energy usage. While Greenpeace’s ratings were based on erroneous calculations and assumptions, Apple took the opportunity to make more public statements about its energy usage and plans.