Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
The reason is simple. If apple brought the money home and invested it in turbines in the USA, it would have had to pay taxes on them.
The bad thing about this is that apple is allowed to invest its money abroad while evading taxes in the first place. Yes, the pentagon wastes a lot of money, but that's no reason for not paying taxes.
The concept of "offsetting" your bad behavior by purchasing carbon credits or investing in "green energy" is complete bullshit. It is the same concept that sociopaths use to justify their behavior. You can't buy your way to being good.
You can claim he's smart and does it legally. Well so is Apple.
Blame it on your loopholes and the Politicians that came up with them.
Apple has a shareholder responsibility to minimise taxes just like Donald have self interest to do so.
I remember when they made computers.
Be it Google or Apple, it doesn't matter if these companies are "offsetting" anything or buying carbon credits and whatnot.
These are the companies that have enough money to directly build and invest on renewable power infrastructures to supply their own demands.
What's the point of them buying stakes on renewable energy companies if in the end their data centers and factories are still using unregulated coal power, usually in cities that desperately need to move away from those? It's a half assed way to make them look good.
It also creates a false equivalence... if this tendency catches up, we won't make the necessary changes to replace dirty energy sources with clean ones where it's most needed. You only pay for a bunch of clean sources that are away from where it's really needed, and help keep regular coal and oil sources where they have always been, usually to feed the industrial complexes in big cities with tons of vehicles that are all plenty polluting by themselves.
I mean, it sure is better than nothing, but still a half-assed way to go around it. Specially because it ends up delaying decisions, investment in R&D, and overall thinking on how to completely eliminate dirty sources.
Almost every time I see news about them, it has virtually nothing to do with their products. And when it does, it's usually about some insanely bad design decisions leading to premature device failure, or some other long running problem that they've been completely ignoring and only recently acknowledged on a limited basis because they were forced to by threat of a huge class action lawsuit.
So... What exactly does Apple do?
They don't make premium hardware anymore (charging premium prices isn't the same thing). They don't make computers anymore, they're more akin to disposable appliances. They have a dozen different handheld product lineups, none of which really do any one thing particularly well (anyone remember the 1990s after they booted out Jobs and started releasing the numbered series computers?). Their software is in tatters, the underlying core is rotting from the inside out and every year they just slap more shitty features on top of a seriously shaky foundation.
And yet, I continue to hear about shit like this, instead of things like "Hey, we're going to double down on making OS X a world class operating system and turn the server OS back into something enterprises can actually use... Oh yeah, one last thing, we're bringing back the XServe, and the classic Mac Pro design, and the Mac Mini with removable RAM sticks!"...
What they make is COURAGE. Never forget that.
We should be using *all* available energy sources.
When the cost of power spiked in north CA six years ago, I ripped out my two electric furnaces and replaced then with coal stoves (one heat, one combo heat/cook stove). You know what?? They're not dirty, not sooty, and provide a higher quality of heat for a **MUCH** lower price than electricity. Consider me a coal convert. IMHO, more people should be considering coal for heating and cooking needs. **Much** cheaper than electricity in this particular market. If you're in CA though, you have to get the stove from somewhere like Idaho because of environmental reasons and the shipping can be steep (you'll recover it in after the first season you use the stove).
Perpetual motion is quackery, but we use it every day with solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric sources. I'll grant you that "perpetual" doesn't really apply when applied to sources of energy that come from a giant ball of gas undergoing fusion, since it isn't technically perpetual. Nonetheless, it is free energy on a human scale. Let's support investing in collecting and using such free energy sources because it makes life better for all of us. I know Apple isn't without its faults, but each time humanity invests in this sort of thing, it also improves our lot as a whole.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
As long as the cost of avoiding it "legally" or not saves money over paying it, the tax will ALWAYS be avoided. NO level of tax to those who do not want to pay tax (IMO why bother: it's still more money you get than you had by earning less, and the benefits come back to you too, unless you avoid being in the country entirely), so proclaiming some taxation a "bad tax" is pointless at best, meaningless, and, at worst, destructive.
Apple has a ton of money
Apples stuff is made in China
Greenhouse gas emmissions are a global problem
And Trump doesn't beieve in global warming, so why invest in the US?
... renewable energy is the future and Apple has more cash than God.
It's a sound investment and a way for Apple to diversify.
However, it's also a red flag.
Apple is not investing in R&D and cannot buy a Steve Jobs replacement.
When companies step away from their core competency, it forms a bubble that pops down the road.
As they implode, they sell off all the non-core assets and concentrate on the original business model -- often too late to save itself.
I give you Mobil Oil Corporation.
I worked for them back in the mid-late 80s and they went into real estate, insurance; bought Montgomery Ward, built Reston, Va. from scratch, and all kinds of other non-petrochemical endeavors.
By the very late 90s, they kicked us all out of the IT departments, world-wide, and went super nova, casting off all the extra bullshit.
Exxon picked them up for a song.
Others: HP, Yahoo!, provide examples, as well.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
A business thats full of hot air should invest in wind turbines. Whee lots more spin!!!!!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Electricity generated in China isn't used in America. The distance is too far for the charge to make it around the globe.
The story is a lie.
Apple is investing in Chinese wind farms and doing absolutely nothing to mitigate its local carbon footprint.
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.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
when surveyed that's what CEOs were planning on spending the money on once the incoming administration removes those taxes. That means layoffs, and lots of 'em, because that's what you do after a M&A spree. It also means less competition. Meaning price hikes. I suppose there'll be a little investment, in automation. That's what Carrier's gonna do with about half the money they're getting paid to keep those jobs around....
Now, if we had the political will to actually make them pay their fair share towards a decent civilization I'd be all for it. But I don't think that's gonna happen. So we block the money from coming back into the country where it'll just get used for bad things.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
This is Apple looking for the next opportunity to make money. This is not only about saving the planet. Anyway, it's still a great move.
It's probably because they will profit somehow with this AND get to pretend they're good guys.
And I read it as "Why Apple Just Invented Wind Turbines In China" and was looking forward to the usual /. diatribes...
> They are not "evading" taxes. What they are doing is perfectly legal.
If you get to buy your laws, everything becomes eventually legal.
the answer is: "dont by electronics from a company run by a faggot"
Basically, China continues to put in more new coal plants (35-50 GW / year) than they put in AE (20-30 GW / year).
They should stop ALL new coal plants and start closing them, esp. the old ones. BUT, they are counting on these to power their EVs, which is what they are pushing more.
now, this may look like Apple is helping, but they are not. China will continue to build out NEW coal plants that exceed the AE. As such, prices for electricity will go down and their investment will be worthless.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This looks like an incidental investment. Nothing to do with their core competencies and all about stuffing excess cash because they run out of ideas for using it productively.
It's like Algore buying carbon indulgences than flying around the world in his two private jets.
He doesn't even own one plane, let alone two. And while we're at it: His "oceanfront mansion" is 2 miles from the shore and 500 feet above.