According to Apple’s latest Environmental Progress Report, its data centers and colocation facilities will consume 2.5 TWh in 2024. This is more than the year before, when it was more than 2.3 TWh, according to Datacenter Dynamics. The increase in energy consumption is due to the commissioning of the Waukee data center in Iowa. The facility, with a total area of 37 thousand m2, was being prepared since 2017, but it was only possible to connect to the power grid in October of last year.
In total, the company has eight of its own data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia. According to Apple, 100% of the energy for them comes from renewable sources – solar, wind, and hydroelectric power plants. Solar energy dominates this mix, accounting for 72% of the active energy projects supported by the company. In 2024, the construction of solar power plants continued. The company signed power purchase agreements (PPA) with Ib Vogt – to receive 105 MW from the Castaño Solar project in Segovia (northwest of Madrid).
Image source: Grzegorz Walczak/unsplash.com
Overall, Apple uses a variety of renewable energy in its data centers, but as is often the case, it’s mostly PPAs rather than direct power. In Arizona, the company used 530 GWh. That’s 100% solar power, with 4.67 MW coming from cells installed in the data center’s parking lot. In Nevada, Apple used 454 GWh, which came entirely from the sun. This includes the 20 MW Fort Churchill Solar Array, which uses mirrors to concentrate light onto photovoltaic cells.
In North Carolina, the data center consumed 466 GWh of solar and wind power, 68% and 32%, respectively. In Oregon, the data center consumed 255 GWh — 56% from wind, 43% from solar, and 1% from micro-hydro. Apple noted that it operates one such project in the region, with facilities built along an irrigation canal.
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In Denmark, the data center consumed 59 GWh of energy, and it is also 100% supplied by solar (42 MW) and wind (17 MW) projects. The two data centers in China accounted for 214 GWh, with energy coming in equal parts from solar and wind power plants. There are no detailed data on the Iowa data center yet, but in a sense it replaced Apple’s previously sold California data center.
The amount of energy used by the colocation facilities is not disclosed. The company notes that the use of minerals to power colocation facilities is outside of Apple’s control. The use of cloud power is also kept secret. Apple is a long-standing customer of Google Cloud and is believed to be the platform’s largest customer.
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The report also found that the company has reduced its overall greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60%, part of a broader goal to reach carbon neutrality across all types of operations by 2030. That goal includes cutting emissions by 75% and offsetting the rest through third-party carbon removal agreements. The goal is to remove 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. In total, the company’s global supply chain receives 17.8 GW of renewable energy, which Apple says will reduce carbon emissions by 41 million tonnes in 2024.
In terms of efforts to reduce water use, Apple reported that the Supplier Clean Water Program has saved more than 340.6 million m3 since 2013. In 2024, 53 million m3 were “saved,” with suppliers reusing an average of 42% of their water.
However, any statistics is a rather flexible tool. For example, despite Google’s efforts to achieve zero emissions by 2030, by the end of 2023, emissions had soared by 48% over five years, largely due to AI. Apple is likely to suffer the same fate due to its purchase of powerful NVIDIA AI systems.