Apple Details Carbon Neutral Progress, Announces Energy Storage Project

Apple continues its efforts to go green, as it provided an update this week on progress to ensure its supply chain and products are carbon neutral by 2030.

Apple announced that over 110 of its manufacturing partners around the world are moving to 100 percent renewable energy for their Apple production, with nearly 8 gigawatts of planned clean energy set to come online.

Once completed, these commitments will avoid over 15 million metric tons of CO2e annually – which is the equivalent of taking more than 3.4 million cars off the road each year.

Carbon Neutral

Apple also announced that it is investing directly in renewable energy projects to cover a portion of upstream emissions, as well as a major energy storage project in California to pilot new solutions for renewable infrastructure.

“We are firmly committed to helping our suppliers become carbon neutral by 2030 and are thrilled that companies who’ve joined us span industries and countries around the world, including Germany, China, the US, India, and France,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.

“In a year like no other, Apple continued to work with a global network of colleagues, companies, and advocates to help make our environmental efforts and everything we do a force for good in people’s lives – and to work alongside the communities most impacted by climate change,” Jackson added.

It should be remembered that in July 2020, Apple had pledged to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030.

Apple was already carbon neutral for corporate emissions worldwide, but that announcement detailed it plans to bring its entire carbon footprint to net zero 20 years sooner than IPCC targets.

Carbon neutral is adding no carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

Companies can do this by offsetting their emissions (planting trees or other projects that reduce emissions elsewhere in the world), or by balancing emissions (removing a unit of emissions for every unit of emission produced).

Or firms can not release greenhouse gases in the first place by switching to renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power for example.

Apple’s plan to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030 is noteworthy, as this new commitment means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact.

Energy Storage

Apple also announced this week that it is constructing one of the largest battery projects in the United States, at California Flats.

It said that this “industry-leading, grid-scale energy storage project” is capable of storing 240 megawatt-hours of energy, enough to power over 7,000 homes for one day.

This project supports the company’s 130-megawatt solar farm that provides all of its renewable energy in California, by storing excess energy generated during the day and deploying it when it is most needed.

Apple confirmed to CNBC that it will use Tesla’s Megapack at its new battery-based renewable energy storage facility.

The solar farm will include 85 of Tesla’s Megapacks, and the energy will be used to help power the company’s headquarters.

It should be remembered that this is not the first solar project from Apple.

In 2012 it revealed that it was building a 20 MW solar array to power its massive data centre in North Carolina. That farm was built on 100 acres and supplies 42 million kWh of solar power per year.

In 2013 Apple announced a solar farm to power its data centre in Reno, Nevada. That 18 MegaWatt solar array powers its data centre there.

Other solar projects have followed over the years.