Apple has filed plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission to build what is being touted as the nation’s largest private fuel cell energy project, a silent power plant that will generate electricity from hydrogen, reports the “Charlotte Observer” (http://macte.ch/218eC).
The company filed its plans with the N.C. Utilities Commission last week to build the 4.8-megawatt project in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. The fuel cell project, the nation’s largest such project not built by an electric utility company, will be developed this year. It will be located on the same data complex that will host a planned 20-megawatt solar farm – the biggest ever proposed in North Carolina.
The facility has been awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, Apple said in its latest “Apple and the Environment” report (http://www.apple.com/environment/). Last month it was reported that renewed construction had begun at Apple’s Maiden datacenter. While the main facility has been running for many months, primarily handling iCloud traffic, the “Hickory Daily Record” said that part of the site’s berm has been demolished for extra construction.
