Apple has created a new company called Apple Energy LLC. The company was incorporated in Delaware on May 20, but will be run from its corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Apple plans to sell the surplus electricity generated by its various renewable energy projects. The company is not new to investing in renewable energy. Actually, since 2013, 100 percent of the power at all of the company’s data centers comes from renewable energy.
Its Singapore facility, as mentioned in Tech Times, is using clean energy from a 32-megawatt solar project consisting of panels at 800 locations. Apple says that it is sourcing and producing “enough renewable energy to cover 93 percent of the electricity we use at our facility worldwide.”
Apple Plans to Sell Excess Rooftop Solar Energy From Headquarters #solarenergy #apple pic.twitter.com/kOlDajSm6I
— RenewableEnergyWorld (@REWorld) June 10, 2016
There is even bigger news on the horizon says EcoWatch. Apple wants to sell its excess energy directly to consumers instead of to other power companies. And if Apple’s application to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) goes through, it will sell excess power from solar panels on top of its Cupertino facility as well as energy generated by its solar farms, hydroelectric plants and biogas facilities across the country.
“If Apple’s application is approved, it will be able to sell electricity directly to its customers — eliminating the need for utility power,” PV Tech observed. Apple, along with Google, is one of the biggest investors in energy projects outside of the utility industry.
Apple, in its FERC application, is also asking to sell its surplus energy at market rates instead of wholesale because it is not a major utility company and can’t influence electricity rates.
“Applicant seeks the same blanket authorization and waivers of the commission’s rules and filing requirements previously granted to other entities authorized to transact at market-based rates,” Apple’s tariff states, according to EcoWatch.
In the Apple blog 9to5Mac, Seth Weintraub thinks that Apple is following in the footsteps of Green Mountain Power which sells renewable energy to homeowners. It is also believed that Apple plans to use the new energy company to aid in fueling Apple’s long-awaited electric car project.
