Apple on Monday announced its global facilities are powered with 100% clean energy. This includes retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.
“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”
The company also says nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to powering all of their Apple production with 100% clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23.
To reach its 100% clean energy goals, the Cupertino firm invested in and constructed renewable energy facilities around the globe. Facilities include solar arrays, wind farms, biogas fuel cells, micro-hydration generation systems, and other clean energy technologies.
Apple currently has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world, totaling 626 megawatts of generation capacity, with 286 megawatts of solar PV generation coming online in 2017, its most ever in one year. It also has 15 more projects in construction. Once built, over 1.4 gigawatts of clean renewable energy generation will be spread across 11 countries.
Apple’s renewable energy projects include:
- Apple Park, Apple’s new headquarters in Cupertino, is now the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America. It is powered by 100 percent renewable energy from multiple sources, including a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation and four megawatts of biogas fuel cells, and controlled by a microgrid with battery storage. It also gives clean energy back to the public grid during periods of low occupancy.
- Over 485 megawatts of wind and solar projects have been developed across six provinces of China to address upstream manufacturing emissions.
- Apple recently announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center in Waukee, Iowa, that will run entirely on renewable energy from day one.
- In Prineville, Oregon, the company signed a 200-megawatt power purchase agreement for an Oregon wind farm, the Montague Wind Power Project, set to come online by the end of 2019.
- In Reno, Nevada, Apple created a partnership with the local utility, NV Energy, and over the last four years developed four new projects totaling 320 megawatts of solar PV generation.
- In Japan, Apple is partnering with local solar company Daini Denryoku to install over 300 rooftop solar systems that will generate 18,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy every year — enough to power more than 3,000 Japanese homes.
- Apple’s data center in Maiden, North Carolina, is supported by projects that generate 244 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year, which is equivalent to the energy used by 17,906 North Carolina homes.
- In Singapore, where land is scarce, Apple adapted and built its renewable energy on 800 rooftops.
- Apple is currently constructing two new data centers in Denmark that will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one.
