Apple just unveiled plans to build 100 percent renewable energy powered two data centers in Denmark and Ireland. Like all Apple data-centers, the new ones will run entirely clean, renewable energy sources. Constructed at a total cost of US$ 1.9 billion, the data centers will each measure 166 thousand square meters and will power the company's iTunes App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri services. The data centers will be located in Athenry in western Ireland and in Viborg in central Denmark and Apple expects them to be operational in 2017. Not only will the facilities be powered by 100 percent renewable energy, but they will also be constructed with additional sustainable features. The center in Athenry, Ireland, will include an outdoor education center for local schools and a walking trail, and is to be constructed on land "previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees." Additionally the company will seek to restore native trees to nearby Derrydonnell Forest. The Apple Data center for Viborg, Denmark will be designed to capture excess heat from the servers, which will then be conducted into the district's heating system to provide warmth for adjoining communities. Furthermore, it will be located next to one of Denmark's largest electrical substations, removing the need for additional generators. As for precisely what renewable energy sources the data centers will utilize, it is likely that Apple will embrace the potentials of wind energy in the reason, and Apple emphasizes that they will "work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future. These facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data center."

Buried deep underneath the mountains near Stavanger, Norway, the Green Mountain Data Center is quite possibly the greenest data center in the world. Powered by renewable energy from nearby sources and cooled with water from the adjacent fjord, the cavernous data center is all about energy efficiency. The center dramatically reduces its cooling costs and energy use by tapping into the 8 degree Celsius water from the fjord. As reported by Inhabitat.com, Green Mountain Data Center has about 21,000 sq meters of floor space inside the mountain and it is the collaboration of three Norway companies - Smedvig, Lyse Energy and Ergo Group. This includes facilities for administration, warehousing, a quay, and 9 halls to house data servers. As servers pump out of a lot of heat while storing and processing digital data, a powerful cooling system is needed to keep them from overheating. A number of data centers around the world are working towards more energy efficient systems, but the Green Mountain Data Center may have hit upon a jackpot. First, the center is buried underground, which means it uses the earth and the surrounding rock as moderators. Then it uses water from the neighboring fjord in a closed loop ground water heat exchanger and the cold efficiently cools the underground space. The center also sources all of its power from a number of very close renewable energy providers, which makes it totally carbon neutral. Combined with energy efficient design inside, the center is promoting itself as an environmentally friendly server farm. With a variety of close power sources nearby with a high level of redundancy, the farm is also promising a 99.9997% availability. Most of the data center's business will come locally from Norway, but they may also attract clients from Europe and the US because of their eco-friendly offerings. Development of the mountain halls and server rooms is going on now and they expect to be up and running sometime in late 2012. A fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs with thousand meters high, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. The length of fjord is in ten times bigger than the width. There are 4 most famous fjord areas in the world located on the west coast of Norway, Chile, New Zealand and North America.

Google announced construction of its first-ever Asian data center on December 8. The US$ 300 million facility is being built in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and will increase the company's reliability and speed in the region, reported constructiondigital. The ultra-modern center will incorporate innovative design features to make it one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly facilities in the region. "One way we'll achieve region-leading efficiency (in Hong Kong) is by custom designing each element to operate at optimal efficiency," said Simon Chang, Google's head of Asia-Pacific hardware operations. The data center will use free cooling, adjust power usage for peak efficiency, and will run at higher temperatures than comparable centers. The center will be operational in 2013, and employ 25 full-time staff members. "We're working as quickly as we can get to this facility operational so we can keep up with rapid growth in capacity demand across the region. We're targeting early 2013 to start bringing the facility online," Chang added. As cloud-based technologies continue to expand, internet companies are looking to expand their capacity and reach. Google is also rumored to be building a data center in Singapore, and has already purchased nearly 25 thousand square meters of land - though no official construction date has been set.