Apple to Greenpeace: Shut up, hippies, we’ll go green, already

Written by

Poornima Gupta for Reuters:

Apple Inc plans to power its main U.S. data center entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

Apple has been the subject of protests by Greenpeace for using so-called “dirty” energy – power generated by the burning of coal – rather than through the use of renewable resources such as wind or solar.

The company said it’s buying equipment to power two solar farms to be built near its Maiden, NC data center. Once they’re operational they’ll generate 84 million kWh annually, according to the report. A small “bio-gas fuel-cell plant” will also be constructed.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters the company’s goal is to make all three of its data centers coal-free. He added that he’s unaware of any company working on onsite energy generation at Apple’s scale.

Of course, Greenpeace wants more.

“… Apple must adopt a firm siting policy to prioritize renewable energy when it chooses locations for new data centers. Only then will customers have confidence that the iCloud will continue to get cleaner as it grows,” said Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook.



  • VGISoftware

    This is ridiculous babble.

    The obvious No. 1 priority for a new data center is to get it built and up and running serving its customers. THEN, with gained knowledge of local environmental factors over the medium long term, it will be able to design renewable energy systems best suited to that particular site.

  • quietstorms

    So we’re at the point now where we punish a company for doing the right thing?

    While Greenpeace has done some good things, they’re becoming an increasing embarrassment for liberals like myself.

  • http://www.thegraphicmac.com/ JimD

    Greenpeace has been, and probably always will be, a complete joke.

  • http://thesoapvox.com ElVox

    Calling greenpeace a joke is not close enough…they are nothing but a bunch of ecoterrorist nutjobs, and should be outlawed in every country on earth, treated like any other group of terrorists.

  • Mel

    Renewables are designed into a data centre from the outset and this is exactly what Apple have done.

  • Conscious Human Being

    when you have more cash on hand then the United States, you should be able to have the foresight to build a data center that is powered with renewable energy. I mean if Google and Facebook can do it why can’t Apple. To say Greenpeace is a joke or terrorist group is a biased point of view. Any group of people are going to have flaws but their hear is in the right place. Stopping above ground nuclear testing, I am sure everyone can agree with that, and who wouldn’t want to end commercial whaling? They are doing things to benefit us all at the end of the day and have my support. 

  • lucascott

    The implication that Apple is doing any of this because of Greenpeace are false. If you go back and look at the actual details, Apple filed for approval for all of these plans at the top of the year, well before Greenpeace started their games for getting press off bashing Apple. It just happens that the approval process finished during all this nonsense.