wiredinUSA March 2015

Green to the core?

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has committed to invest $848 million in a solar photovoltaic plant to power themajority of the company's offices and retail stores in California. The plant will be built on a 1,300 acre site in Monterey County, and will generate enough energy to supply Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, its data center in Newark, all Apple offices and 52 stores. Cook told investors: ”We are doing this because it's right to do, but you may also be interested to know that it’s good financially to do it. We expect to have very significant savings, because we have a fixed price for the renewable energy, and there’s quite a difference between that price and the price of brown energy.” The project is part of the California Flats project on Hearst’s 73,000 acre Jack Ranch, and will become one of the largest ever built for a commercial user. It will add 130MW of new solar power to California, enough to power about 50,000 California homes. Apple has invested heavily in renewable energy, most notably to run the data centers that power iCloud, iTunes and other Internet-based services. Elsewhere, Apple’s Oregon facilities are powered by a hydroelectric plant and wind energy; its California data center uses wind energy; and its Nevada facility relies on solar and geothermal energy. Apple’s price is fixed for 25 years. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2015, and should be finished by the end of 2016.

wiredInUSA - March 2015

wiredInUSA - March 2015

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