Apple signed a deal earlier this year to purchase 200 megawatts of wind power for its Prineville, Ore., data center, adding to its investments in Oregon’s data center country.
The deal was disclosed last week in Apple’s annual environmental responsibility report (PDF, find Appendix B), and flagged by The Oregonian Monday. Apple operates a massive data center complex in Prineville, about three hours south and east of Portland, where several other companies like Facebook and Google have also set up shop.
Construction on the first phase of the Montague Wind Power Project is scheduled to begin in September, according to a report last month in the Portland Business Journal. It will be located in Gilliam County, Ore., in the high desert east of the Cascade Mountains nearby several other wind projects.
In its report, Apple said it will be powering 94 percent of its Prineville data center with wind power, and called the Montague Wind Power Project “the first Apple-created wind project.” An Apple representative did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on whether or not Apple commissioned the Montague Wind Power Project, or if it was just the exclusive customer for the first phase, but I’ll update this if more details arrive.
