Officials in Ireland Approve Apple Data Center Project

Local officials have approved a 20-megawatt Apple data center construction project – one of two Apple data centers the company said it would build in Europe earlier this year. Galway County Council voted in favor of the build but set 12 conditions, including construction time restrictions, limits on vehicle travel on local road, and a €16,500 fee to the council to cover costs of changing road markings, RTE News reported.

Apple announced in February it would spend $1.9 billion to build data centers in Ireland and Denmark, saying it expected to launch both in 2017.

According to RTE, the Cupertino, California-based company’s Athenry, Ireland, data center project will start with a 20 MW facility on a 500-acre site that can accommodate a total of eight such data centers if the need arises. Apple expects to employ at least 150 people at the data center, once the €850 million project is complete.