Apple wants to build up to 2 million square feet of data centre space at its future facility in Waukee, Iowa, according to site plans submitted with the local planning commission. The application comes more than four years after Apple launched the Waukee project, which envisions a complex with up to six data centre structures, each about the length of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Each building will be 315,773 square feet, bringing the total potential size of the site to almost 1.97 million square feet when combined with an administration building and maintenance facilities.
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Apple’s proposals for a data center in Waukee will be reviewed by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in the coming days. The “Project Morgan” data center project is estimated to provide approximately 500 construction and operating employment in Waukee. Apple also contributes to community infrastructure projects, such as the development of a 66-acre leisure park. Apple had previously intended to begin building in 2018 and open the facility in 2020. There have been several delays, and Apple once stated that the project may not be completed until 2027. Local leaders in Waukee, however, report that Apple has subsequently stated that it hopes to begin building in 2022.
More on the Apple Iowa data centre
Since 2017, the number of hyperscale data centers has rapidly increased, with several cloud estates reaching 1 million square feet of size and 100 megawatts of capacity. This is evidence of the thriving Internet economy, which has played a bigger part in daily life throughout the COVID-19 epidemic. Apple’s data center infrastructure is used to enable iCloud storage, the iPhone AppStore, and the transmission of music, podcasts, and video. The impending activation of the Apple project comes at a time when Iowa is experiencing a surge in data center construction, with Meta announcing plans to expand its Altoona campus to 5 million square feet and Google announcing that it has now invested more than $5 billion in its Council Bluffs cloud campus.
