On Monday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:$AAPL) announced that it will be spending 6 billion Danish crowns, or $929 million, on a new data center in Denmark, making this the second in Denmark to run entirely on renewable energy.
It’s not a surprise that Apple is investing time and money into Denmark as the Nordic country is a leader in wind power with an abundance of supplies in wind energy and biomass energy. According to the foreign ministry, “Denmark is becoming northern Europe’s hub for data centers with a high prospective for growth for the tracking industries delivering solutions to the many data centers sprouting up all over the world.”
After the United States pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, Apple vowed to back the agreement by making the switch to renewable energy as well issuing a $1 billion green bond. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, was one of several CEOs who directly contacted President Trump to keep the United States in the pact before he made his final decision. According to Cook, he did all that he could to persuade Trump, but it just wasn’t enough.
If all goes as planned, Apple aims to begin operations at the data center in the second quarter of 2019 in Aabenraa in southern Denmark near the German border. The primary role of the data center is to power Apple’s online services, such as the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps, and Siri for customers across Europe.
“We’re thrilled to be expanding our data center operations in Denmark, and investing in new sources of clean power,” Erik Stannow said in a statement. He added: “The planned facility in Aabenraa, like all of our data centers, will run on 100% renewable energy from day one, thanks to the new clean energy sources we’re adding.”
Apple’s first data center in Denmark near the town of Viborg is set to commence operations later in 2017.
Featured Image: Twitter
