^[1]Apple's first solar farm in North Carolina

Earlier this year, Apple revealed its plans to build a second solar farm several miles away from its new data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The new 20-megawatt facility would complement another 20-megawatt solar farm that seems to be nearing competion ^[2] across the street from Apple’s data center.

Now Hickory Daily Record reports ^[3] that Apple has just bought 200 acres for the solar farm at a price of $3 million. The plot of land is located around 15 miles from the data center and is co-located with a North Carolina Data Campus created by several local governments to attract companies that need data center capacity. The report said:

“With the two solar farms and a bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation, it will be the largest non-utility installation in the country, according to Apple. The company expects to generate 124 million kWh a year, which would power the equivalent of 10,874 homes, Apple says on its website”.