Apple announced on Monday that it will invest €1.7 billion to build and operate two new data centers in Europe. The state-of-the-art facilities will be located in County Galway, Ireland and the Central Jutland Region of Denmark, powering Apple's online services such as the App Store, iTunes Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for European customers.
“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.”
The data centers will be powered by 100% clean and renewable energy sources, with each having the lowest environmental impact yet for any Apple data center. Apple will also work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects derived from wind and other sources for future usage.
“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.”
The 166,000-square-meter data centers are expected to be begin operations by 2017 and help support nearly 672,000 jobs in Europe, a large portion of which relate to the development of iOS apps. Apple claims that developers have earned more than €6.6 billion through app sales since the App Store launched in 2008.
Apple hired former NV Energy VP Bobby Hollis to serve as its Renewable Energy Manager in April 2014, just over two years after outlining that it achieved 100% renewable energy usage at its data centers in its 2012 environmental responsibility report. Last year, the iPhone maker reached a deal for a third solar farm at its North Carolina data center and expanded its Reno data center with several new data cluster buildings.
