A first collection of aerial photos has shown just how Apple is expanding its Maiden, North Carolina datacenter for iCloud. The Wired images have shown the ground cleared just next to the datacenter for the upcoming Bloom Energy fuel cells to translate biogases into electricity. The much larger area known to be in progress across from Startown Road should be for the 20-megawatt solar power farm.
Apple's upcoming fuel cell system for its Maiden, North Carolina datacenter should be ready just before the end of the year, according to new details. A filing mid-week at the North Carolina Utilities Commission has shown that the first fuel cell system will be ready in June, with all six up and running by November 30. Each of the systems, made by Bloom Energy, takes methane from animal byproducts and landfills, and combined should produce between 24 to 200 kilowatts across four individual fuel cells.
Bloom Energy is responsible for supplying the hardware behind Apple's upcoming 5MW fuel cell farm, two GigaOM sources claim. The company may already have some Bloom cells at its Cupertino headquarters. The 5MW farm will support Apple's datacenter in Maiden, North Carolina, helping the building to use cleaner, off-the-grid power in association with a solar array.
Apple's North Carolina datacenter may soon get some of its power from green sources, a search through local permits has uncovered. The proposal found by the Charlotte Observer would have some of the 171 acres of unused area across the street from the Maiden-based plant, at 6028 Startown Road, used to set up a solar power farm. Nicknamed "Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded," most details are unknown other than that Apple had to file an erosion control permit (PDF) to promise it wouldn't pollute the nearby area.
AT&T has signed a deal with Bloom Energy to install oxide fuel cell technology at 11 of the company's sites in California. All told, the Bloom Energy Servers, or Bloom Boxes, will generate 7.5 megawatts of power with 50 percent lower CO2 emissions than conventional fossil power generation. This is equivalent to taking more than 3,700 cars off the roads, AT&T claimed.
Bloom Energy today held the formal launch of its first technology, the Energy Server. A new approach to energy, it uses stacks of solid oxide fuel cells to convert air and most any other fuel source, including things as dirty as fossil fuels or as clean as biogas, into usable electricity. The process almost always produces less CO2 than traditional methods and, unlike solar power or similar methods, can run 24 hours a day without dependence on light or wind.
