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Apple Invests $848 Million Into Solar Farm

Posted by Soulskill on from the milking-the-sun-cows dept.

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."

5 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So which kind of solar is it? by radl33t · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...

  2. More successful companies should do this by Camembert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obviously, this initiative will generate plenty of snarky comments and cynicism over here because, well, Apple.
    But if we take a step back I think it is great that a company sets this example to combat climate change while it would be so easy not to anything that doesn't bring direct shareholder revenue. I hope that more successful companies follow this example.

  3. Re:So which kind of solar is it? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is the bird incineration thing an actual concern holding back solar thermal energy?

    No:
    1. There are far bigger problems holding back solar thermal, especially the falling price of PV solar.
    2. The number of birds incinerated is negligible compared to the number killed by things like habitat destruction.

    This particular plant is PV, not thermal. So it isn't even an issue.
    Solar thermal makes little economic sense. It is more expensive than PV, and the only advantage is its ability to provide base load power. But that is only a theoretical advantage, not a real one, since the current demand curve for electric power fits the production curve of PV quite well.

  4. Re:So which kind of solar is it? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Great. So all the desert critters will be displaced and in constant shade.

    One option for those critters would be to move to the 99.9999% of the desert not being used.

  5. Re:Terrible price by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

    $850 million for 130 MW? That's $6.50 a watt. Commercial scale solar is supposed to be around $1.60. Am I missing something here?

    It is much more expensive to make the solar panels with rounded corners.