Apple Now Powered by 100 Percent Renewable Energy Worldwide

[Speedy2]

What economical advantages does it have? The majority of the time it's still going to be cheaper to use 'dirty' energy.

If it was economically advantageous to use clean energy then all companies would be trying to use it asap

Well that's only true, if you don't factor in the cost of 'dirty' energy properly. You know, pollution, destruction of habitat, loss of fertile soil, health care costs, loss of human productivity etc. Right now the producers and consumers usually don't have to pay that cost, but the general population does, one way or the other, and usually in a different country.
One way to change that is by changing the laws worldwide and letting the people pay who are responsible, which some countries are doing.
Another (and probably easier) way is to make renewables cheaper than fossil and nuclear. Considering that renewables are ubiquitous, free of charge and .. well.. renewable and ergo will always be there in the long run, that's not such a hard task as many think.
A lot of countries are already producing mostly renewable energy due to their geography, Sweden, Austria, Iceland, Switzerland come to mind. But others are catching up.
Look at this way: if heavyweights as different as Germany and China are doing it on a large scale, it's probably wise economically and not just a hippie idea.

 

[deanthedev]

Also... how are all apple stores powered with clean energy? Most of them are in shopping malls or central locations with no place for any solar panels. So I don't understand how their power consumption isn't coming from the grid

How do they power Apple stores with renewable energy? Aren't the Apple stores in New York for example, running on the public electrical grid from Con-Ed? Or do they have their own source somehow? Or are the stores equipped with solar roofs or something somewhere? Batteries shipped in every night that are charged somewhere else?

How does it work!?

Let’s say Apple uses 100MW of electricity from the local grid. It might be from coal, nuclear or gas. To offset this, Apple produces 100MW of renewable electricity in various locations across the USA. This gets dumped into the local grid.

Apple can claim they’re running off renewable energy since they’re producing an amount equivalent to what they’re consuming. In reality, Joes Garage on the Interstate might be running off the renewable energy Apple produces while an Apple store in NY is running off wherever Con-Ed gets their electricity.

 

[mw360]

How do they power Apple stores with renewable energy? Aren't the Apple stores in New York for example, running on the public electrical grid from Con-Ed? Or do they have their own source somehow? Or are the stores equipped with solar roofs or something somewhere? Batteries shipped in every night that are charged somewhere else?

How does it work!?

They pay a supplier to feed renewable energy into the grid, or they feed it in themselves. They don't get to literally use the exact same energy fed in by the solar/wind farm, because that would be impossible and meaningless anyway.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

I would like to say Congrats to Apple, but I won't.

Congrats to Apple's customers. You paid the higher prices for it. And hopefully, everyone thinks it was money well spent.

 

[LordVic]

Well yes it is unless the grid is 100% green powered. You can't pick and choose where the power from the grid is generated.

Many regions around the world have moved to green power already. Possible Apple also focuses their attention on regions with green energy? (I don't know, would be an interesting thing to research, where their stores are located and what sort of grid they're on.)

Ontario is almost at 100% green energy production. So any of Ontario based Apple stores would almost certainly be getting green energy.

 

[mw360]

I don’t think you can ever truly be “carbon neutral.” The attempt and intent is nice, but I’m not sure planting trees to offset your factory output truly negates the damage to the environment.

Being carbon neutral isn't meant to prevent all damage to the environment. It's only concerned with carbon dioxide emissions.

 

[ipedro]

So, they'll soon exceed 1.21 gigawatts and make it safely back to 2049. Maybe with their efforts it won't be as bleak as it looked in the new Blade Runner.

They already exceeded 1.21 gigawatts.

1.4 is more than 1.21 #mathishard

 

[chumpy34]

Right? so the Apple Retail Store located in my local mall is 1005 renewable energy?
I am VERY curious to see how this worked out.

Count me as one who is very skeptical that their retail stores located in malls are using 100% renewable energy as here in Arizona we are about as "green" as a red apple. Our two energy provides, APS and SRP, have very little renewable offerings and I can't see a large indoor mall splitting up the electric bill so that stores can choose their own supplier much less a green source???

Hope I am wrong but seems pretty far-fetched here in nuclear and natural gas AZ ... California, I can see it.

 

[JimmyHook]

We want to leave the world better than we found it. Thats why we produce unupgradable, disposable products with planned obsolescence to keep you continually buying products that are being produced through the mass exploitation of finite metals and minerals.

They are a private company. Nobody forces people to buy new phones every year or two. Besides, they aren’t naturally upgradable devices anyway. They do what they can, they are highly recyclable. The most of any company. You may be correct about the computers, but nobody forces anyone to buy one. Apple is the best tech company for the environment... period.
[doublepost=1523312309][/doublepost]

Count me as one who is very skeptical that their retail stores located in malls are using 100% renewable energy as here in Arizona we are about as "green" as a red apple. Our two energy provides, APS and SRP, have very little renewable offerings and I can't see a large indoor mall splitting up the electric bill so that stores can choose their own supplier much less a green source???

Hope I am wrong but seems pretty far-fetched here in the Wild West AZ, California, I can see it.

It’s physically impossible to make their mall stores run on renewable energy so you can’t knock them for things they can’t control. They sell renewable energy back to the grid from their other sites to offset that. The net is 100 percent renewable. It’s a good thing, not something to nitpick and whine about

 

[GabrielMoro]

This is amazing. If every company copied this, we'd have a better world.

 

[scottcampbell]

"We're committed to leaving the world better than we found it"

That is something that the clown in the white house can't state

Permission granted to not make a political statement out of everything.

I know you're upset about the current president, but your life might be less aggravating if you stopped following him.

 

[chumpy34]

They are a private company. Nobody forces people to buy new phones every year or two. Besides, they aren’t naturally upgradable devices anyway. They do what they can, they are highly recyclable. The most of any company. You may be correct about the computers, but nobody forces anyone to buy one. Apple is the best tech company for the environment... period.
[doublepost=1523312309][/doublepost]

It’s physically impossible to make their mall stores run on renewable energy so you can’t knock them for things they can’t control. They sell renewable energy back to the grid from their other sites to offset that. The net is 100 percent renewable. It’s a good thing, or something to nitpick and whine about

No knocking them at all, just pointing out the inaccuracies in the article.

 

[GabrielMoro]

Can someone tell me how Apple’s retail stores achieve such? Some of them are located in malls which I don’t think Apple clan control where the power comes from. Do they simply produce more energy than they are using and then use that as a means to claim that they are 100% renewable?

Well this could be it. I think they could sell this excess energy to other companies. It's basically the same thing, as those companies wouldn't be using non-renewable energy instead.

 

[JimmyHook]

I would like to say Congrats to Apple, but I won't.

Congrats to Apple's customers. You paid the higher prices for it. And hopefully, everyone thinks it was money well spent.

Congrats to everyone for this amazing achievement. Apple for their leadership and stewardship, customers for their loyalty, and most of all thanks to every person who cares about this issue and doesn’t try to pretend it is fake
[doublepost=1523312544][/doublepost]

No knocking them at all, just pointing out the inaccuracies in the article.

It’s not inaccurate

 

[AAPL21]

"The company also announced nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23."

Interesting to see Quanta and Pegatron mentioned as having commitment to this cause. Would be interesting to see how this commitment is actually fulfilled, as large manufacturers often get electricity deals as part of their enticement package or retention deal. And I do wonder if the investment in solar PV will make the electricity cost to be cheaper than what manufacturers are paying currently.

Commitment is one thing, following through with commitment is another. Verifiable fulfillment is another thing altogether. Ah, the things one must do to keep a big customer, like Apple, happy.

 

[ipedro]

How do they power Apple stores with renewable energy? Aren't the Apple stores in New York for example, running on the public electrical grid from Con-Ed? Or do they have their own source somehow? Or are the stores equipped with solar roofs or something somewhere? Batteries shipped in every night that are charged somewhere else?

How does it work!?

There's no single monopoly on producing power. Big energy producers (nuclear, coal, gas) feed energy into the grid which utilities purchase and users in turn pay the utilities for.

Smaller energy producers that only produce energy from green sources (solar, wind, hydro, thermal) also feed energy into that same grid. Customers who want to buy only green energy buy it from green companies.

Everyone is feeding into the same grid but due to supply and demand, if fewer people are buying from dirty energy companies, less of that dirty energy is produced and more green energy is produced. The exact electrons that Apple is using can come from anywhere, but the energy that is being produced according to their use/demand is coming from a green source.

Eventually, those small companies will become the big companies and far more people will be using green energy than the traditional dirty sources. It's coming faster than most people think.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Being carbon neutral isn't meant to prevent all damage to the environment. It's only concerned with carbon dioxide emissions.

Don’t humans exhale carbon? Maybe we should be replaced

 

[iTuna]

Can someone tell me how Apple’s retail stores achieve such? Some of them are located in malls which I don’t think Apple clan control where the power comes from. Do they simply produce more energy than they are using and then use that as a means to claim that they are 100% renewable?

My guess is that Apple generates enough renewable energy to power 100 percent of its facilities, not that every facility uses 100 percent renewable power.

 

[gnasher729]

It’s all well and good but with the way they build their tech we’re u can’t repair it easily that clean energy is a mute point as the tech has pollution in it when it can’t be recycled fully or ram goes bad u have to chuck the whole computer

Nonsense. Everything can be repaired. When the RAM goes bad on a $2,000 MacBook, you can bet that it is going to be repaired. Sometimes repairs are not easy, but they are always possible.

And don't forget that lots of things that make items harder to repair make them last longer in the first place.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Kudos!
Wish everyone did this.

Maybe Lisa Jackson can replace Ive. Maybe that will halt the journey of the MBP to become as repairable as the iPad

 

[profets]

We want to leave the world better than we found it. Thats why we produce unupgradable, disposable products with planned obsolescence to keep you continually buying products that are being produced through the mass exploitation of finite metals and minerals.

Actually, have you seen that Apple robot that takes apart iPhones? Apple devices are pretty recyclable.

But you’re absolutely right, our consumption based world is not sustainable at all... Hey, the iPhone 8 now comes in red!

Lisa Jackson mentioned last year that Apple products are built from 80% of recycled materials and their goal is to reach 100%.

 

[Solomani]

Apple should commit 500% renewed energy and renewed enthusiasm into building Mac Pros.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Apple should commit 500% renewed energy and enthusiasm into building Mac Pros.

Now we are talking!

 

[m4mario]

my wife and I were considering replacing the roof with a solar paneling. It takes something like 30 years to pay for itself. The efficient and cost savings are just not there. I have to imagine Apple is losing a lot of money by moving in this direction.

Thats because your electricity is subsidized by the government. (Which you pay anyway through your taxes.)
For Apple, that subsidy is not there, and their usage is much larger. So they will quickly get the cost benefit.
More than that, its just not cost benefit they are after.

 

[seanmcbay]

Great news if true.