Greenpeace released a report on the “dirty energy” powering cloud data, and states that the Cupertino-based Apple is the worst environment offender with 55.1 percent of its cloud energy coming from coal. The organization says that the information that it will be able to gather is on the mix grounds through which it has collected the data from although the companies are unwilling to provide it. The source of information that Greenpeace gathers in order to gain information and present what is right or wrong is through the number of sources: media and investor reports, a 2007 EPA electric power database, international statistics, local utilities published data on the general mix of energy sources.
Interestingly Greenpeace says that its analysis “does not attempt to represent itself as a comprehensive snapshot of how much clean energy is being consumed on a company-wide level,” it seems that the report is in part an effort to prompt companies to release additional data on their energy consumption. Critics say that Greenpeace’s calculations lack appropriate data and consistency. We’ll have to wait and see if other questioned companies are willing to respond.
Apple back on this responded to Greenpeace (via The New York Times):
In a statement issued in response to the report, Apple disclosed for the first time that the data center would consume about 20 million watts at full capacity – much lower than Greenpeace’s estimate, which is 100 million watts. In territory served by Duke, a million watts is enough to power 750 to 1,000 homes.
Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, added that the company is building two large projects intended to offset energy use from the grid in North Carolina: an array of solar panels and a set of fuel cells.
