Why Apple Just Invested in Wind Turbines In China (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CNN Money: Apple's latest deal in China doesn't have anything to do with smartphones. The tech giant is investing in the Chinese wind power industry, turning to the world's most populous country to help it achieve its goal of getting 100% of its energy from renewable sources. The iPhone maker struck a deal this week to buy a 30% stake in three subsidiaries of Goldwind, China's biggest wind-turbine manufacturer... it's Apple's largest clean energy project to date and the first of its kind in the wind power sector, Lisa Jackson, vice president of Apple's environment initiatives, told state-run newspaper China Daily...

Environmental group Greenpeace has warned that electronics manufacturing uses a lot of energy in China, drawing on the country's high number of polluting coal power stations. Apple's moves into renewable energy are an attempt to compensate for this... The new wind project will add 285 megawatts of clean energy to China's grid, which Apple says will offset some of the other sources used by its operations and those of its immediate suppliers Foxconn, Lens, Catcher and Solvay.

Comments

Re:electricity

[kybred]

My bet is they won't be putting up a local wind farm to actually use renewable energy.

Cause that would require investing In America - instead of china.

You're right, Apple is not putting up wind farms in the US. They're putting up (mostly) solar farms

This means Apple will now be able to sell renewable power it does not need but it owns or has under contract — note that 93% of Apple facilities worldwide run on renewable electricity.

According to the FERC filing, Apple holds positions in these solar properties:

• 20 MW Ft. Churchill solar farm in Lyon County, Nevada,
• 50 MW Bonnybrooke solar facility under construction in Pinal County, Arizona
• Two behind-the-meter generating plants totaling 18 MW on its California campus.
• A long-term firm power purchase agreement with First Solar for 130 MW from a California solar farm under construction
  67.5 MW of facilities in North Carolina