Silicon Valley giant Apple is planning a 20MW solar installation to power a new data centre the company is building in Nevada.
The plant will be developed in conjunction with NV Energy, recently acquired by MidAmerican Energy, part of investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire, and built by SunPower.
Apple said the proposed array, which will be built in Nevada’s Washoe County, was in line with the company's ambition to power all its data centres with renewable energy.
A spokesman for the company said: “All of Apple's data centres use 100% renewable energy, and we are on track to meet that goal in our new Reno data centre using the latest in high-efficiency concentrating solar panels.
“This project will not only supply renewable energy for our data center but also provide clean energy to the local power grid, through a first-of-its-kind partnership with NV Energy. When completed, the 137-acre solar array will generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, equivalent to taking 6,400 passenger vehicles off the road per year.”
The project is expect to take eight months to complete.