Apple are about to take a leap forward into the future of clean energy, as the tech giant is set to pour a huge sum into the building of a brand new solar farm, which is expected to generate huge amounts of energy from the sun’s rays and send it direct to Apple’s premises as part of a 25 year deal.
The proposed farm in Monterey, California is expected to send power to the upcoming planned Apple Campus 2, several of Apple’s California corporate offices, their data center in Newark, California, and all 52 Apple stores in the state.
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Of course, this will mean huge bragging opportunities for Apple, as not only will they be able to boast that they were easily able to pay for the farm, but also be able to remind users that their stores are powered by clean energy.
That massive sum is said to total close to $848 million, which, after a very successful iPhone 6 release last year might seem like not much of a big deal for Apple. It certainly is arguably worth the positive publicity that being ‘green’ can always be relied on to generate.
Environmentalist group Greenpeace were quick to chime in, saying that “It’s one thing to talk about being 100 percent renewably powered, but it’s quite another thing to make good on that commitment with the incredible speed and integrity that Apple has shown in the past two years,”.
The recent announcement from Apple came at the end of a video session wit Tim Cook at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, where on top of being able to power Apple’s buildings the Apple CEO revealed that additionally their new farm would be able to generate enough energy for 60,000 homes.
“We know at Apple that climate change is real,”
“The time for talk has passed and the time for action is now.”
– Tim Cook, Apple CEO
Apple’s partner in the solar endeavor is First Solar, who revealed that the deal was the “largest agreement in the industry to provide clean energy to a commercial end user.” and that “Apple is leading the way in addressing climate change by showing how large companies can serve their operations with 100 percent clean, renewable energy,”.
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Indeed, the reaction to Tim Cook’s announcement was generally filled with praise for the CEO, with Greenpeace also saying that “other Fortune 500 CEOs would be well served to make a study of Tim Cook”.
Apple’s cash value recently hit over 700 billion dollars in the US, so there’s no shortage of cash to fund such futuristic projects. The solar farm will be completed by the end of 2016.
Via: CNBC
Via: Techcrunch