Clean energy is hard to be against unless its cost is an issue.
The Big Red Car is here for y’all on a cloudy day in the ATX. Talking clean energy.
Clean energy is a big umbrella which covers solar, wind, water, geothermal, bioenergy, and nuclear. Hello, America, NUCLEAR?
OK, so maybe the DOE definition of clean energy took it one step too far, but that’s what they say.
Apple (2018) and Google (2017) have announced that 100% of their energy needs worldwide are being supplied by clean energy. They also pull the definition a bit further by adding “renewable” to their definition.
Anybody surprised these two companies are leading the way on this?
Apple and clean energy
Last week Apple made this announcement. Those in the know saw it coming for a long time, but Apple finally acknowledged they’ve gotten there.
Apple focuses on solar, wind, bio-gas fuel cells, and micro-hydro generation systems. [No nuclear in the mix. Awww!]
Here is their new corporate headquarters, Apple Park. Notice the solar array.
Apple headquarters, dubbed The Spaceship, sits on a former Hewlett-Packard campus and is home to 13,000 workers in its Pentagon like ring on 175 acres of land. Apple is closing in on $5,000,000,000 in total cost and the project has been the subject of continuous cost overruns. Of course, Apple is sitting on almost $300 billion of cash, so there is that.
Apple is building two huge data centers in Denmark which have been targeted for self-sustaining clean energy from the time of real estate acquisition.
In addition, Apple has been twisting the arm of its suppliers and, already, twenty-three suppliers have made the plunge. They have only committed to getting to 100% clean energy; they are not there yet.
This is even more impressive given that Apple is operating in forty-three countries including the US, the United Kingdom, India, and China.
Bravo!
As a treat, here is a drone’s eye view of the place before completion in September 2017.
So what’s the big deal, clean energy, Big Red Car?
Dear reader, the Big Red Car sees the significance in two ways:
1. Apple set out to do this because it believes it’s part of its shtick. No debate about that, mind you. So, I say, “Bravo, Apple!”
2. Second, Apple did this with their own money. They did not beg the government for money. They used their own money.
The Big Red Car is very enthusiastic about people self-funding their own ideas.
In the arena of clean energy, wherein the numbers simply don’t work to make this affordable by companies who are not Apple, again, I say, “Bravo! Apple, you put YOUR money where your mouth is and that is a bit of alright in my book. Well played.”
Sorry, we didn’t talk much about Google, but they didn’t provide much information to deal with.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Well played, Apple. Now go out there and bite the ass off a bear today, dear readers! Grrrr!
