Apple, Challenged By Greenpeace, Says It Has A Plan To Run Greener Data Centers

Greenpeace International gave Apple a mixed review over its clean energy plans for its data centers, the huge servers farms that power its iCloud and other online services like iTunes, saying in a report that the company hasn’t provided enough details about how it’s going to reach its goals. Apple disagrees, saying it’s working to deliver on the promises it made in May to make all of its data centers coal free and run them using renewable energy sources — and that it has been transparent about what it’s up to.

At the Maiden, North Carolina, center it opened earlier this year, Apple has said 60 percent of the energy will come from solar arrays being installed now by the end of this year. The other 40 percent will come from local sources of renewable energies, including wind farms. For its data center in Newark, California, Apple said it was granted regulatory approval early this year to buy renewable energy. The company “is in the process of locating and buying enough direct-access clean energy to meet the needs of the facility by February 2013,” according to the environmental progress reports it posts on its website.