Apple has bought 200 more acres of land in Prineville Oregon, with a view to building more data centers or else a solar array. 

The company paid Crook County $3.6 million for the land, but has not said what it plans to do with the land. It already has extensive data centers in Oregon, since it started its first building there in 2012 and has had off-again, on-again plans to build a giant solar array there, to provide renewable energy. 

Keeping quiet

“We don’t know what all their plans are,” said Crook County Judge Mike McCabe, according to Oregon Live. “We like them all, get along really well. They just don’t divulge much.”

Apple built a 340,000 sq ft (35,000 sq m) data center on its first 160 acres in Oregon, supported by tax breaks - Oregon Live says it saved $370,000 in tax last year, while investing $275 million. 

Apple first proposed a second data center in 2013, but this hit the buffers over a possible Oregon “brand tax”. Now data centers have been exempted from that tax, prompting a slew of building across the state. 

This year, the company has applied for a $6 million data center construction project involving two ”pods”, according to Central Oregon site The Bulletin.

A solar plant is a real possibility as Apple has promised to use more renewable power. In 2014, Apple bought a hydroelectric power plant near Prineville, and previously in 2013 it announced plans to build a solar array in Prineville in 2013, but this has come to nothing so far.

The Oregon data center boom is very real, with Facebook planning its third data center, and Google planning a large new site in The Dalles.