Foulum Data Center (name not official) is an

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...

at the village of

Foulum Foulum is a small Danish village with around 100 households (the settlement Formyre also included) in the Tjele parish located in Central Jutland eight kilometres east of Viborg. Foulum is a part of Region Midtjylland and a part of the Viborg mu ...

in the

Viborg Municipality Viborg municipality is a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in Region Midtjylland on the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 1,421.04 km2, and has a population of 94,622 (1 April 2014). Søren Pape Pou ...

, in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. It opened in September 2020. The data center was announced on February 23, 2015, along with a similar data center in Ireland, which plans were canceled in mid-2018. It will have a size of and Apple's total investment for the data center amounts to around €850 million.Apple to Invest €1.7 Billion in New European Data Centres
''

''. Apple's Data Center will service the company's European customers in connection with its online services such as the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Core features of iMessage, available on all supported platforms, includ ...

Maps A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

and

Siri Siri ( ) is a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and audioOS operating systems. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a natural-language user interface to answer questio ...

. The data center is located adjacent to the grid hub Tjele, where a 1.5 GW

high voltage direct current A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating curren ...

line connects to hydropower in Norway. The center was intended to send surplus heat to the local district heating network. It is also planned that the center will only use

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

and will be able to use

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

from Norway. Apple's needs in 2017 were scheduled to be 7 megawatts for the start in 2019. Apple owns a 42 MW

solar farm Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

near

Thisted Thisted is a town in the municipality of Thisted in the North Denmark Region of Denmark. It has a population of 13,461 (1 January 2022)wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s on the west coast. The choice of Denmark instead of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

was estimated to be due to a low Danish

energy tax An energy tax is a tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures ...

of just 0.5

øre Øre (plural ''øre'', ) is the centesimal subdivision of the Danish and Norwegian krones. The Faroese division is called the ''oyra'', but is equal in value to the Danish coin. Before their discontinuation, the corresponding divisions of the Swe ...

per kWh compared to 12.39 øre per

kWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

in Norway. It is estimated that the data center consumes 700

GWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

annually. As part of the project, an emergency power plant is built for use in backups of any power outages. The emergency power plant will consist of 14 units, each with an approximately high

diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression- ...

, an earthy tank unit with room for approximately of diesel oil and an approximately high

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

. When the data center was announced on February 23, 2015, it was received with great optimism from Viborg Municipality, and it was argued that this was the largest foreign capital investment in Denmark ever. The municipality expected that the construction phase would "create many hundred jobs", and that the operating phase would also create a lot of jobs - directly as well as derived. The construction of the first craft houses was started in November 2015. Denmark, for over three years, secretly negotiated with Apple. In addition to the municipality, the negotiations also included

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

, Energi Viborg and the Department of Foreign Affairs 'Invest in Denmark'. The then Minister of Trade and Development Mogens Jensen found that advertising had to be "the best business news of the year for Denmark". A similar Apple data center in

Maiden, North Carolina Maiden is a town in Catawba and Lincoln counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 3,310 at the 2010 census. Maiden was the first public high school in the state with an observatory and is currently home to an Apple iCloud Da ...

created 50 full-time jobs. Through public access, ''Dagbladet Børsen'' found that tax agency SKAT was also involved in the negotiations, where a tax-technical model was constructed, so that the cooling in Apple's data center was considered heat-producing unit. The unusual construction led to several questions in the Energy, Supply and Climate Committee in the

Danish Parliament The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands a ...

. In July 2017, another Danish Apple data center was announced. It was planned to be located at the transformer station Kassø in Aabenraa Municipality, however its plans were canceled in mid-2019 in favour of expanding the Foulum datacenter instead.

References

Further reading