iCloud Now Runs Completely Powered By Solar Energy

As a response to last year’s failing grade, received by Apple from Greenpeace International (who charged the company for using coal for powering the data cloud), the iPhone maker announced this week on Thursday, that their data farm, which powers the entire cloud activity, has now gone completely solar. We know this, because Apple released their report concerning the Environmental Progress.

Through this report, Apple also stated that now, 75 percent of their overall corporate power is generated by renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Considering that two years ago, that percentage was only of 35 percent, we can only say that the giant has taken the grade from Greenpeace really serious if they now doubled the use of sustainable energy in their suites.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO announced earlier this year, more specific in January during a Town Hall meeting, that they have reached the 100% solar milestone for the data centers. However, their updated environmental report provided us with more details. This is how we know that 75 percent of their corporate offices, are now powered by renewable energy. This is a considerable increase, taking into account the percentage of only 35 percent from two years ago.

Cook stated that their goal is to power every office they have with renewable energy, and this is why they are investing in their own onsite energy production, searching for suppliers of sustainable energy and even reducing their energy needs.

So congratulations to Apple, who surpassed its initial goal of powering 60 % of their air conditioning system, which cools their huge number of computer servers, with renewable energy.

As the company confirmed in their Environmental report, their data centers are 100 percent on renewable energy. They also mention that even if their overall percentage is already at 75 percent, the number will continue growing as they keep acquiring sources of renewable energy. Their final goal ?is to power the entire company with sustainable energy, and to soon achieve 100% percent.

Last year’s report released by Greenpeace International, named How Clean is Your Cloud??was targeting a big number of the servers which held data ?for the iTunes service and for the iCloud.

You can see below, in Apple’s new video, the solar array they have for the iCloud institution in ?Maiden:

You should also know that their 100 acre solar facility, which powers the huge data center from North Carolina, was fully instated in December 2012.

Another interesting fact is that the solar system they use includes a certain number of fuel cells, able to convert the biogas into power. As stated by Apple in the report, their new data center located in Prineville, Oregon will also be sustained by renewable energy sources.

Many of those servers ? which deliver data for iTunes and other cloud-based services ? were the target of?Greenpeace?s report?last year entitled ?How Clean is Your Cloud??