Denmark

Apple’s new iCloud data center in Viborg is now operational, running on 100% renewable energy.

After nearly four years of construction, Apple's new iCloud data center, located near the Danish city of Viborg in Europe, is now operational. Like all of the company's data centers, this one's running on 100 percent renewable energy. Earlier this summer, the Cupertino company completed one of Scandinavia’s largest solar arrays to power the Viborg facility. It marks the first Danish solar project built without the use of public subsidies.

Apple will build another data center in Denmark

Apple will build another iCloud data center in the Danish city Aabenraa near the German border, its second in the country, Apple's Nordic director Erik Stannow told Reuters today.

The Cupertino company will spend 6 billion Danish crowns, which works out to approximately $921 million, on the facility which will be powered entirely by renewable energy.

It will power App Store, Siri, iMessage, Maps and other iCloud services. Construction is expected to start before the end of 2017.

Stannow told Reuters in an email:

We're thrilled to be expanding our data center operations in Denmark, and investing in new sources of clean power. The planned facility in Aabenraa, like all of our data centers, will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one, thanks to new clean energy sources we're adding.

He added that the reliability of the Danish grid is one of the main reasons Apple will operate two data centers in Denmark, a leader in wind power which also has abundant supplies of biomass energy.

If all goes as planned, the facility should go online in the second quarter of 2019.

The iPhone maker is also building a $1 billion data center in Denmark's Foulum, a small town located just outside of Viborg, a city in central Jutland that is home to Aarhus University and agricultural research facilities.

That facility should go online later this year, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Apple is also building a data centre in Ireland but it's been struggling to get it off the ground because local residents asked the High Court for a judicial review on environmental grounds.

"The proposed data center is currently under judicial review," a spokeswoman said.

Image: Apple's data center in Maiden, North Carolina