-
Apple’s “California Flats” solar farm in Northern California.
-
An employee (obviously) uses an iPad on site at California Flats.
Apple announced Wednesday that it will build a “grid-scale” energy storage project in California that can store 240 megawatt hours of energy. The storage will work closely with the 130 megawatt solar farm the company has already built to meet daytime energy needs at its Cupertino headquarters. In addition, Apple says 110 of its manufacturing partners are switching to 100 percent renewable energy as part of Apple’s commitment to make its supply chain and products carbon neutral by 2030.
The project aims to store energy so that the energy produced by the solar farm can be used both during the night and during the day, and Cupertino says the project will store enough energy to “power more than 7,000 homes for one day.” to provide’. Apple plans to share some of what it learned from the project with other companies, executives said.
Apple’s own business footprint is already carbon neutral, the company says, but it will be a longer and more challenging road to take the various manufacturing partners and suppliers. Apple’s editorial post provides details on how Apple is working with suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint:
The company shares the experience gained from Apple’s own transition to 100 percent renewable energy with its suppliers, and introduces suppliers to resources and training materials with country-specific information to guide them through their transition to renewable energy. Apple also trains suppliers through advanced and customized training with leading experts. And the company supports the creation and growth of renewable energy industry associations that suppliers can join to learn about local opportunities.
Apple then goes on to describe the Clean China Energy Fund, which it says was created to “invest in clean energy projects totaling more than one gigawatt of renewable energy in China.”
The company says it believes it has the relationships and influence to encourage suppliers around the world to continue plans to reduce their impact on the environment. “We have the advantage of having long-term relationships with them. And we also have the advantage of having purchasing power with them. And so between the two, I think that’s led to a really nice partnership,” Apple’s VP Lisa, Environmental Policy Jackson told The Independent in an interview.
This energy storage and supplier commitment announcement comes just days after Apple announced a $4.7 billion “Green Bond” spending on clean energy and reductions in carbon emissions. And a few weeks later, Apple revealed in a financial filing that it will link executive cash bonuses to metrics related to the company’s stated social and environmental values.
Apple has recently invested significantly in recycling programs, renewable energy and other environmental initiatives, sometimes to the frustration of consumers and sometimes for additional motives. For example, the company announced that new iPhone shipments would not include chargers to streamline the shipping process and reduce waste, claiming that both optimizations would reduce the products’ negative impact on the environment. But the company decided not to lower the price of the iPhones, which slightly increased Apple’s own margins on the product.
This move was praised by some and criticized by others. In some regions, consumer watchdog groups fought fiercely to force Apple to include the chargers anyway, arguing the environmental friendliness of the change was exaggerated. When we analyzed Apple’s decision, we stated that it would indeed reduce the negative environmental impacts related to the products, but we also noted that Apple passed the cost of that change to consumers and that there were other, bigger things. what the company could do has so far declined to respond.
List image by Apple