Apple Devleoping Alternative Energy Near Charlotte

Apple Devleoping Alternative Energy Near Charlotte

April 25, 2012 |

North Carolina is home to a large, private energy project. In June, Apple will put on line a fuel cell power plant to generate electricity from hydrogen. The new 4.8 mega watt plant will be in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. Dan Fogel is the Associate director of the Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University. This evening, he's moderating a panel discussion about Apple's project at WFU's Uptown Charlotte campus. Fogel says Apple is motivate to develop alternative energy sources because it spends a great deal of money using electricity to maintain its large data storage systems. And according to Fogel, key to Apple's project is a bloom box. "A bloom box is a way to generate electricity through chemical process to give off power as long as there is a source of hydrogen," says Fogel. "It's supposed to be a very efficient way of doing it although very expensive. It cost about $6.7 million dollars per mega watt." According to Fogel, on e criticism of the bloom box is that is uses natural gas meaning a fossel fuel is still needed for the process. But proponents argue the bloom box is a simple technology, is more effieicnt and produces a cleaner energy. The new plant is slated to be fully functional by December, at which time it is expected to produce enough energy for a thousand homes per hour.