14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is making progress towards setting up new headquarters in California. Thus, it was this past Tuesday when the Cupertino, California city council gave the company the final approval to proceed with the construction of its planned Apple Campus 2.
Environmentalists will be glad to hear that, should things go as planned, the new Apple headquarters will run on green energy alone. This means that, unlike other office buildings, this one will not produce loads of greenhouse gas emissions when up and running at full capacity.
Think Progress tells us that, in order to make sure that its new building will be powered entirely by renewables, Apple is to invest heavily in harvesting sun power.
Thus, the company has announced plans to almost entirely cover the campus' roof, whose surface will amount to 750,000 square feet (69,677 square meters), in solar panels.
The resulting solar panel array is expected to be the largest in the US to provide energy for a single corporate campus, and will also be one of the largest to have ever been built anywhere in the world, the same source details.
Just in case this massive solar array does not manage to keep up with the campus' energy requirements during peak hours, Apple is prepared to turn to grid-purchased green energy. On-site fuel cells will also be used to keep the building’s ecological footprint at a minimum.
Once completed, the circular Apple Campus 2 will span over 1200 feet (365.7 meters) in diameter. The company estimates that it will accommodate 2.8 million square feet (0.26 million square meters) of office space.
Should things go as planned, the spaceship-like building will open in 2016.
Interestingly enough, Apple's current corporate campus is also powered solely by green energy. What's more, the company plans to have a new manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona run on renewables alone as well.