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Apple Invests $848 Million Into Solar Farm
An anonymous reader writes: Apple is making a huge investment in solar energy, sending $848 million to First Solar's California Flats Solar Project. The deal will supply Apple with energy for 25 years. Construction of the new 2,900-acre solar farm will start this summer and finish by the end of 2016. Apple's share of the energy produced will be about 130 megawatts, while another 150 MW will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric. "The iPhone maker already powers all of its data centers with renewable energy. Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, has advocated taking more steps to combat climate change."
First Solar only does photovoltaics, so no birds will be incinerated.
This isn't concentrated solar power (CSP) it is CdTe "thin film" flat panel photvoltaics. They do have distinguishing names, just don't count on Reuters to get it right. AFAIK, there is no CSP station that incinerates all the birds that fly by. There are some CSP plants that can burn birds that fly too close to the focal point on the central tower...
Yes, to both. CSP has been known to singe/kill birds that fly into the concentrated light.
OTOH, the number of birds killed that way is insignificant compared to the number killed by house cats, or by flying into windows. It's a non-issue except for people who want to argue using emotional appeals instead of rational cost/benefit evaluation.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
It's more about saving money than caring about the climate. Lots of big companies running data centres are doing it because solar is so cheap compared to the grid. There is some initial outlay for the panels, not that much in comparison to the rest of the data centre, and then in a few years they have paid for themselves and your electricity bills are slashed.
Looking like you care is a nice bonus, but secondary to making your product more competitive by reducing costs.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Solar panels don't use/contain rare earths.
They are made form pure Si which is plus doted with Boron on one side and minus doted with Phosphor on the other side.
You learn that in 6th - 8th grade school in a physics class btw. depending when the physics education starts in school.
Regardless, it is easy to google.
So: no raw earths involved at all in PV cells.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Rofl.
A NEW solar thermal plant might be more expensive then an EXISTING nuclear plant.
But a NEW thermal plant is cheaper than a NEW nuclear one.
Replacing existing stuff, whichs investments are written off, with new stuff, regardless how cheap, is always difficult.
Does not change the fact that per W a new solar plant is the second cheapest thing you can build in our times (regardless of PV or CST) The only thing cheaper is wind.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.