Apple will rumoredly build an additional, smaller facility next to its massive North Carolina data center. The new 21,030-square-foot building featuring 11 rooms and costing $1,885,129 is described as “tactical” and said to store just some bunches of servers.
According to county permits revealed by the Hickory Daily Record, the future data center will be situated at 5977 Startown Road in Maiden and won’t be used to house workers. The filing also details enhanced security measures, including a two-door passage requiring an employee to go through an extra second door to be cleared for entrance and an 8-foot-high chain-link security fence surrounding the building.
However, the upcoming “tactical” facility won’t be the last expansion at the Maiden site. Apple is reportedly planning to complete the campus with both a fuel cell installation and a solar farm to power its onsite data centers. By the end of 2012, the new constructions would allow the facility to run on 100% renewable energy.
If brought into existence, Apple’s new solar farm will be the biggest onsite facility of its kind in North America owned by the end user. The company is allegedly planning to build it on a previously purchased vacant 171-acre plot on Startown Road. Powered by 100% biogas, the 5-megawatt fuel cell facility will also be U.S. largest non-utility fuel cell installation.
Apple has yet to confirm its plans for the new Maiden-based “tactical” data center. But the report comes as the iPhone maker is actively expanding other server facilities in North Carolina, Nevada and Oregon to better support iCloud and other services.
