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Apple Leads All U.S. Companies in Domestic Solar Energy Capacity

Thursday July 25, 2019 7:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple had more installed solar energy capacity in the United States than any other company as of the end of 2018, according to a new report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (via CNBC).


Apple led the way with 393.3 megawatts of installed solar energy capacity, topping Amazon and Target at 329.8 megawatts and 242.4 megawatts respectively. Google trailed in sixth with 142.9 megawatts. The rankings are based on both on-site and off-site solar installations in the United States.

Last year, Apple announced that all of its global facilities, including retail stores, offices, and data centers, are now powered with 100 percent renewable energy. Apple Park, for example, is powered by a 17-megawatt rooftop solar installation, four megawatts of biogas fuel cells, and other clean sources.

"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," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Tag: Apple environment
[ 69 comments ]

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G5isAlive
17 weeks ago
Money grabbing pigs, now they are stealing from the Sun! When will Apple's greed end?
Rating: 41 Votes
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Butler Trumpet
17 weeks ago
Good! I hope more companies follow.
Rating: 26 Votes
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Mac-lover3
17 weeks ago

I applaud the positive stuff Apple does, but being the best at being least-bad still has a lot of room for improvement.

I like what Tim says, but if he means it then we need fewer glued-in batteries and a move away from proprietary/soldered-in/inaccessible storage/memory please, and longer support (even if only security updates) for older devices so that people feel less pressure to upgrade as quickly. That is called putting your money where your mouth is, and er, Apple have enough money to fill all their mouths (or something!).

Longer support really? We still got updates for an iPhone 4S this week? You still want support for your iPhone 3GS or something??
Rating: 18 Votes
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reden
17 weeks ago
Everyone else: not good enough Apple! Who cares about the planet, where’s my cheaper iPhone?
Rating: 18 Votes
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Porco
17 weeks ago
I applaud the positive stuff Apple does, but being the best at being least-bad still has a lot of room for improvement.

I like what Tim says, but if he means it then we need fewer glued-in batteries and a move away from proprietary/soldered-in/inaccessible storage/memory please, and longer support (even if only security updates) for older devices so that people feel less pressure to upgrade as quickly. That is called putting your money where your mouth is, and er, Apple have enough money to fill all their mouths (or something!).
Rating: 16 Votes
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brueck
17 weeks ago

I know this sounds good. But have you ever calculated the land required per MW?
Not to mention what it takes to manufacture the Panels.


Yes, as have all the top environmental scientists in the world. Have you? We can generate 40% of our electricity needs simply by filling empty roof tops. That’s at current system efficiencies.

Have you ever looked into what it takes to manufacture oil and gas?
Rating: 9 Votes
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Psychicbob
17 weeks ago
Solar and wind energy generation is expensive to set up and takes quite a few years to pay back. If a particular company has the most spare cash then it should be no surprise that they can afford to have the highest number of solar panels.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Jim Lahey
17 weeks ago
Good stuff. Fully expecting lots of complaints about non-replaceable batteries etc. from those who don’t consider that replaceable batteries would just get piled into landfill rather than recycled.
Rating: 8 Votes
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citysnaps
17 weeks ago

Money grabbing pigs, now they are stealing from the Sun! When will Apple's greed end?


The government needs to look into this. Smells like a monopoly to me!
Rating: 7 Votes
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needsomecoffee
17 weeks ago

I like what Tim says, but if he means it then we need fewer glued-in batteries and a move away from proprietary/soldered-in/inaccessible storage/memory please, and longer support (even if only security updates) for older devices so that people feel less pressure to upgrade as quickly. That is called putting your money where your mouth is, and er, Apple have enough money to fill all their mouths (or something!).


This. As China begins to deal with the environmental affects of rare earth mining, we start to understand the affect Apple had leading the phone industry to non-replaceable components -- driving a nearly complete "disposable electronics culture". They had the market position, and resources to have developed two lines: the current (BMW line), and "long-lived" (Prius line). Obviously avoiding the latter was great for shareholders as these environmental costs are externalized and sales volumes maxed out. Overall Apple's PR campaign as "the greenest" company for things like its solar use appears so hypocritical to me given the highly destructive design history. Also related is their very sad policy that all Apple products must be shredded by third-party recyclers. Anything to boost sales -- "but, but we use solar..."
Rating: 6 Votes

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