Apple Inc is embracing renewable energy sources with an US$848 million commitment to obtain electricity from a solar farm that is big enough to power its offices in California, along with 52 retail stores and a data center.
The company that revolutionized how people use computers and mobile phones is stepping up efforts to make the entire business more environmentally friendly.
Apple is teaming up with First Solar Inc to secure solar-generated electricity for 25 years, a deal that the energy company described as the largest agreement ever for a single commercial end user.
Apple joins Google Inc, Amazon.com Inc and other companies with intensive data operations that are seeking to get more power from renewable sources.
Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook has made environmental responsibility a key element of his management of the Cupertino-based company, with 100 percent of its data centers running on energy from renewable sources.
“We’re doing this because it’s right to do, but you may also be interested to know that it’s good financially to do it,” Cook said on Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco.
“We expect to have a very significant savings because we have a fixed price for the renewable energy — so we’re thrilled to continue on this course of doing things that really leave the world better than we found it,” he said.
The iPhone maker will receive power from 130 megawatts of First Solar’s California Flats Solar Project in Monterey County, California, First Solar said in a statement.
The news triggered a jump in First Solar shares, which rose 2 percent in extended trading, adding to a 4.8 percent gain to US$48.54 at the close in New York.
Apple’s investment is also a validation of solar power at a time when renewable energy sources are becoming a greater part of the US’ electricity mix amid more stringent federal environmental rules.
While Apple’s commitment is one of the biggest deals to procure solar power from a single source, Google has funded more than 15 alternative-energy projects since 2010 as part of a more-than US$1.4 billion investment in clean power production.
Construction on First Solar’s 1200-hectare California Flats Solar Project, which will provide power for Apple, is to begin in the middle of this year and be completed by the end of next year.
Additional output of about 150 megawatts from the solar farm will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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