Apple, Akamai, Etsy and Swiss Re today announced an agreement to develop two new wind and solar energy farms in Illinois and Virginia. Spearheaded by Apple, the new projects will generate 290 megawatts to the PJM electric grid serving much of the Eastern United States, including areas of Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. The two new projects will provide enough power for 74,000 homes, and will support each of the companies’ operations.
Akamai, Etsy and Swiss Re previously had limited opportunity to access large renewable energy projects in the regions covered by the thirteen state PJM wholesale electric market. By collaborating with Apple, these companies were able to access wind and solar power from the new projects at competitive prices and agreement terms. Collaborations like this accelerate the pace at which new renewable energy generation is built and brought online.
The group, with technical assistance from 3Degrees, will collectively purchase 125 megawatts from a wind farm near Chicago and 165 megawatts from a solar PV project outside Fredericksburg, Virginia, which will be delivered to the electric grid covered by the PJM wholesale electric market. The projects are expected to come online over the next two years. The solar and wind projects will be developed by sPower (an AES and AIMCo company) and Geronimo Energy, respectively.
“At Apple, we’re proud to power all of our operations around the world with 100 percent renewable energy,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, in a statement. “In the process, we’ve charted a course for other companies and organizations to purchase renewable energy and transition their own operations to greener power. The collaboration announced today shows how companies of all sizes can address climate change by coming together.”
“Etsy is excited to be a part of a project that will benefit both the planet and our customers,” said Rachel Glaser, Etsy Chief Financial Officer, in a statement. “This agreement will help Etsy to meet our goal of powering operations with 100% renewable electricity while also innovating by paving the way for small companies to participate in the renewable energy market.”
“We are proud to be partnering with these corporate leaders to accelerate renewable energy adoption. For Akamai, this collaboration was critical in closing these deals; and, in conjunction with our Texas wind project signed last year, we are on target to achieve our 2020 global renewable energy goal,” said Jim Benson, Akamai EVP and CFO, in a statement.
“As a leader in mitigating climate risk, Swiss Re aims to reduce its carbon footprint and support renewable energy, which is why we’re so happy to be part of this collaboration,” said Brian Beebe, Head of Origination North America, Weather and Energy, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, in a statement. “We also hope to speed up the adoption of these clean technologies through Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ innovative insurance products, which help owners of wind and solar assets decrease cash flow uncertainty.”
“We commend Apple’s leadership in this collaboration between them, Akamai and Etsy. Without this group of forward-thinking companies this project would not be a reality,” said Ryan Creamer, CEO of sPower, in a statement.
Source: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s “Environment” webpages are here.
Who supplies the energy when the wind is not blowing and at night?
As I’m sure you know, during the minority of the time when the collaboration is generating less power than it is using, it buys power from the interconnect network. The rest of the time, it is selling surplus electricity to the network. Since the collaboration is, on an annual basis, generating more renewable power than it consumes, it is accurate to say that it is 100% reliant on green sources. The same is true of the several American cities that are 100% green.
What I know is that the “real energy network” is required to build real capacity equal to the pretend “renewable energy” capacity for all those times wWhen the wind is not blowing or the sun shining. FYI, the sun only shines about 1/3 of the day. These virtue signaling fake energy sources are strictly built to make liberals feel good. When these same liberals charge their Tesla’s they damn well expect real coal powered plants to instantly start charging their 0 to 60 in three seconds anthracite powered cars.
If it makes real lightbulbs shine, it isn’t pretend capacity. Here in Texas, renewable already produces more megawatt hours than coal at a much lower cost. Those aren’t pretend dollars being saved. Without wind and solar, our conservatives would be paying a damn sight more to keep their power tools charged.
“virtue signaling fake energy sources”
?????
Well I’ve come across a lot of muddle headed, denialist, anti-green energy excuses, deliberate dissembling, obfuscation and sheer idiotic mendacity in environmental matters but…
You take the biscuit, the gold medal for desperation and the lifetime award Oscar for Lunatic Fringe disinformation.
Here in the apparently grey old rainy UK, my solar starts delivering power into the national grid around 06:30 and gives up around 1930 currently. It does this for about 4 months a year and averages out in excess of eight hours a day for the whole year. I’ve reduced my household electrical grid demand by 35%, my daily workshop business costs by around 40% using solar and heat pumps. What’s not to like? Even the UK as a whole now has
many days in summer when renewables account for over 50% of consumption. Given I’m at 53N then there is no excuse south of the 49th parallel.
Why not be honest and just straight out declare you believe human-induced global warming is a hoax? You know you want to.
You’re late to the party.
Renewables + storage is beating coal.
Particularly here on Earth where the sun shines every day for half the day.
Go read a book.
I notice no rich liberal enclaves have windmills. Those bald eagle killing machines are all out in the middle of nowhere.
Yes, they produce real electricity. Except when they don’t. Which is often. At which real reliable constant sources are required by law to be there to back up the unreliable intermittent sources you libs love so much. So, extra capacity of coal and natural gas is required to be there when the fake sources are not. That is a pure fact.
Have you ever lived in West Texas? I once experienced over 700 consecutive days with direct sunshine. The wind blows even more regularly. Power usage is higher during the day, when more businesses are open and air conditioning loads peak. The move away from incandescent bulbs has slashed power consumption for lighting, so the loss of the solar component at night is not as big a drawback as it once was. The wind still blows then.
In large parts of the country, hydropower can combine with other renewable sources to almost displace fossil fuels. In most other regions, using natural gas is cheaper and much cleaner than coal. Without government subsidies and legacy facilities, using coal for commercial power generation would be up there with using buggies for transportation.
Tesla and others are working on economically feasible means to store power. That isn’t there yet on a large scale, but progress is being made. Because green power is relatively cheap, there is headroom to develop total renewable solutions that could compete on price with fossil fuels.
Besides, renewables don’t have to be a total solution to be worthwhile. They aren’t “fake sources;” they produce real electricity at a lower cost. Every kilowatt-hour generated from water, wind, or solar is one less generated by burning fossil fuels. Every ton of coal that isn’t burned is 2.86 fewer tons of carbon dioxide and up to 400 pounds less particulates and fly ash.
west Texas is amazing. The sun shine 24/7. All night. Now, in West Texas nobody needs power at night so that’s OK. Incredible
I hope you do realize that fossil fuel energy is energy stored from the sun through photosynthesis and that it takes millions of years to form. Most energy sources, be it petrol, wind or hydro electric can be traced by to the sun. Geothermal energy is about the only exception I can think of off the top of my head but even in the formation of the earth, the sun was involved.
While electricity and fuel are great, they are options, the real reliable constant source of energy you require to survive is food, last I heard people don’t survive on coal steak with gasoline gravy.
I notice no rich liberal enclaves have windmills. Those bald eagle killing machines are all out in the middle of nowhere.
I hope you realize that 80% of Tesla energy needs are supplied by coal and natural gas.
Unless you and your Tesla live in the large proportion of North America where the majority of electricity comes from hydropower and other renewable sources.