According to a new report from GigaOM, Apple is planning to build a new solar panel farm in Reno, Nevada in conjunction with NV Energy. Reno is also where Apple’s latest data center is located. The company already has two similar-sized solar farms in North Carolina to power its data center there, but this is the company’s first in Nevada.
The solar farm, dubbed “Ft. Churchill Solar Array,” will be able to proved between 18 to 20 MW in power, which is about the same as its plants in North Carolina, which both put out 20 MW in size. With this solar farm, however, Apple will be utilizing a new technology that includes both solar panels and mirrors that focus the sun’s rays up to seven times onto the panels.
The report says that Apple will be partnering with SunPower to engineer and build the solar farm, which is the same company it worked on its North Carolina plant with.
Apple is able to pay for this solar farm thanks to a new green tariff introduced in Nevada this year. This will allow for NV Energy to use or buy the solar farm from Apple at some point down the line if it wants to. It also gives Apple the option to expand the farm later on.
Apple released the following statement on its new solar farm in Nevada:
All of Apple’s data centers use 100 percent renewable energy, and we are on track to meet that goal in our new Reno data center 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.
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