Apple, NV Energy forge deal to build 200MW Reno data center solar farm

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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Apple and NV Energy on Wednesday announced a deal to build an extra 200 megawatts of solar power in Nevada, aimed at supporting the former's Reno data center, with a target completion date of early 2019.




Apple will also dedicate up to 5 megawatts for NV Energy's future subscription program for residential and commercial clients, the latter company said. Apple's VP of environment, policy and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, noted that the Reno data center supports various cloud platforms including Siri, FaceTime, and iMessages.

NV Energy said it will file the application to start a power purchase agreement in "coming weeks."

The arrangement will presumably involve Apple Energy, a subsidiary created in May last year to sell excess energy into wholesale markets.

Apple has been working to power as many of its own stores and offices as possible with renewable energy. In fact the company says that its data centers are already fully powered by clean sources, which suggests that the Nevada solar expansion will be matched by an expansion in the data center itself, presumably to keep up with growing traffic in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The company's next big solar endeavor may be its Campus 2 headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., which will have panels lining the rooftops of several structures including the main "spaceship" complex. While already overdue, it should open sometime in early 2017.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    maciekskontaktmaciekskontakt Posts: 1,169member
    I am nort sure who and when coined that term "solar farm" but it is misnomer. That's not farming or agriculture. It is "solar power plant". Are you growing solar panels or you use them to produce energy? Can we stick original names instead of inventing new useless once?
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 2 of 10
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,861administrator
    The solar industry calls them farms, and has for about 20 years, so I'm fine with using the term. I suspect it has something to do with coal plants, nuclear plants burning fuel in a relatively compact location, and the solar array is spread over a large area.
    edited January 2017 patchythepiratetmaySoliRayz2016watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 10
    falconairefalconaire Posts: 6member
    They are farming the solar energy just as the plants a farmer puts in the ground farms the nutrients from the soil and sun. The fact that they don't need a "farmer" to harvest the energy from the collectors but rather a electrician doesn't mean that it can't be called a solar farm.
    SoliRayz2016radarthekatwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 10
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    maciekskontakt said:
    I am nort sure who and when coined that term "solar farm" but it is misnomer. That's not farming or agriculture. It is "solar power plant". Are you growing solar panels or you use them to produce energy? Can we stick original names instead of inventing new useless once?

    On more simpler terms, a farm is a place for the production of something natural for harvesting, be it plants from the ground, fish from the water, or energy from the sun.

    So a "solar farm" is a place where solar energy is harvested to produce electricity. It's a perfectly valid term.
    jkichlineSoliwatto_cobrapalomine
  • Reply 5 of 10
    fotoformatfotoformat Posts: 302member
    Type "solar farm" into Wikiwand and it comes up with "Photovoltaic power station".

    I've always thought the term "solar farm" acceptable because they are, because of their size, generally located in rural locations. However, whilst the one on top of the new Apple spaceship HQ may qualify by size, Cupertino is hardly rural, despite the arboreal planting planned for the site.
    Soli
  • Reply 6 of 10
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    maciekskontakt said:
    I am nort sure who and when coined that term "solar farm" but it is misnomer. That's not farming or agriculture. It is "solar power plant". Are you growing solar panels or you use them to produce energy? Can we stick original names instead of inventing new useless once?
    Bottomline...please research before trying to correct someone. Makes you look like a fool in the end...
    Soliwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 10
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    mjtomlin said:
    maciekskontakt said:
    I am nort sure who and when coined that term "solar farm" but it is misnomer. That's not farming or agriculture. It is "solar power plant". Are you growing solar panels or you use them to produce energy? Can we stick original names instead of inventing new useless once?

    On more simpler terms, a farm is a place for the production of something natural for harvesting, be it plants from the ground, fish from the water, or energy from the sun.

    So a "solar farm" is a place where solar energy is harvested to produce electricity. It's a perfectly valid term.
    Agreed. Plant would infer the conversion of something from one form into another.  Like coal burning into heat which produces electricity.  A plant produces something through a process.  A farm gathers something and makes it useful.  
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 10
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Let me know when it's up to 1.21 jigawatts. (Which will be never)
    kamiltonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 10
    kamiltonkamilton Posts: 282member
    Soli said:
    Let me know when it's up to 1.21 jigawatts. (Which will be never)
    Great Scott!
  • Reply 10 of 10
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    I am nort sure who and when coined that term "solar farm" but it is misnomer. That's not farming or agriculture. It is "solar power plant". Are you growing solar panels or you use them to produce energy? Can we stick original names instead of inventing new useless once?
    And thus the reason it's not called a solar panel farm. As other posters stated, and as the name excludes the word 'panel,' the farm attribution refers to the harvesting of solar energy.
    watto_cobra
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