Apple’s Commitment to Sustainable Data Centres

Apple is enhancing sustainability across its data centres through innovative server design, water conservation, and waste reduction. In 2023, Apple’s data centres consumed 2.344 billion kWh of electricity, up from 2.14 billion kWh in 2022. Impressively, 100% of this electricity came from renewable sources like solar, wind, biogas fuel cells, and low-impact hydropower. Energy use in Apple’s colocation data centres also dropped to 483 million kWh, down from 487.9 million kWh in 2022.

Apple is building its renewable power projects to support its growth and partnering with utilities to buy clean energy locally. Since 2014, Apple’s data centres have operated on 100% renewable energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 54%. Serving one billion people with services like iCloud, Apple TV+, iMessage, and Siri, Apple is also developing advanced cooling technologies to boost the capacity of its facilities and maximise server density.


Stockholm’s Climate Action and Heat Recovery Initiatives

Stockholm aims for climate positivity by 2040, emphasising energy efficiency and waste reduction through heat repurposing from data centres into district heating. The city’s district heating network started in the 1950s and spans 3,000 km, with a 300 km cooling system. By 2030, Stockholm Exergi plans for district heating to be fully renewable and recovered.

Open District Heating, launched in 2014, allows industries to feed excess heat into the network. Data centres, ideal for heat recovery due to constant cooling needs, have partnered with Open District heating to warm 30,000 apartments annually by 2022. The Stockholm Data Park initiative, a collaboration of multiple stakeholders, supports data centres in contributing to sustainability and boosting the local company.


Alibaba Cloud Expands with Sustainable Hyperscale Data Centres

Alibaba Cloud has launched three hyper-scale data centres in Hangzhou, Nantong, and Ulanqab, as part of a $28 billion investment to modernise its infrastructure and support digital transformation. These centres leverage Alibaba’s Apsara Distributed OS, Hanguang 800 AI chip, and X-dragon architecture. Sustainability is a key focus, with the centres adopting green technologies such as wind energy and liquid cooling. The Hangzhou site, notable for its large, submerged silver cluster, achieves significant power consumption reductions, slashing energy use by at least 70%. The Ulanqab site benefits from natural air cooling due to its cold climate, requiring no additional cooling for 10 months of the year.

The Nantong data centre employs intelligent robots for automated monitoring and maintenance. These new sites join existing centres in Zhangbei and Heyuan, which have managed workload spikes during major events like Alibaba’s November 11 online shopping festival. Looking ahead, Alibaba plans to build at least 10 more hyper-scale data centres to enhance its competitive advantage in Asia and support enterprises’ digital transitions in the post-pandemic era.

    Team Evoscien

    We are a team of eco-conscious writers dedicated to exploring the latest innovations in sustainability and eco-friendliness. Through our passion for creating a better future for our planet, we aim to share informative and inspiring content that encourages more sustainable lifestyles and promotes eco-friendly practices.

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