The ‘cloud’ of data that is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all-too-real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, Greenpeace said in a new report.
A Facebook facility being built in Oregon will rely on coal, while Apple is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region that relies mostly on coal. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have at least some centres that rely heavily on coal power, said Greenpeace.
The companies declined to give details of their data centres, but all said they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing energy efficiency…Yahoo, which is building a centre near Buffalo…will get energy from hydroelectric facilities.
See http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62T0MK20100330?type=technologyNews.