Apple is planning to build a solar farm next to its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The company recently received a permit from local officials to reshape a slope on a 171-acre property the company owns there, according to a report by the Charlotte Observer. It has not been confirmed whether power the solar farm generates will be used by the data center, but the engineering plans the company filed with local authorities are titled ÔÇ£Project Dolphin Solar Farm A ExpandedÔÇØ. Project Dolphin has been codename for the data center project. Apple's executives said at a shareholder meeting in February that the Maiden data center would be launched in May. The company was planning to use it to support its iTunes and MobileMe services, as well as corporate IT. The US$1bn facility in Maiden will be the company's second own data center, complementing an existing facility in Newark, California. It also leases data center space from commercial data center providers. News that Apple was planning to build in North Carolina initially began surfacing around May 2009. It was followed by passing of a new tax incentives for ÔÇ£capital-intensiveÔÇØ businesses in the state, which would reportedly result in a $46m tax break for the Apple data center. About 45 miles away from Maiden, in Charlotte, Apple is also planning to build a store.