‘Roadblocks’ Mar Apple’s Clean Energy Commitment, Greenpeace Says

But as Apple “keeps growing the cloud,” it “still has major roadblocks to meeting its 100% clean energy commitment in North Carolina, where renewable energy policies are under siege and electric utility Duke Energy is intent on blocking wind and solar energy from entering the grid,” said Cook. “To show how it can help remove those roadblocks, Apple should disclose more details about how it will push utilities and state governments to help it achieve its ambitious” goals, he said. While Greenpeace praised Apple for showing progress, its “job is far from complete even in its data center locations,” Greenpeace spokesman David Pomerantz told Consumer Electronics Daily. “As far as we can tell, Apple is still buying renewable energy credits in order to meet the claim it’s making that it’s powered by 100% renewable energy,” he said. Apple didn’t immediately comment.

Apple “dramatically reduced the environmental impact” of its corporate facilities and data centers that provide online services to customers, Apple said at its website. It continues to “invest in ways to achieve 100 percent renewable energy and lessen our carbon footprint even more,” it said. The “goal is to power every facility at Apple entirely with energy from renewable sources -- solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal,” it said. It’s investing in its own onsite energy production, and is forging “relationships with suppliers to procure renewable energy off the grid, and reducing our energy needs even as our employee base grows,” it said.

Apple also achieved 100 percent renewable energy at facilities in Austin, Texas; Elk Grove, Calif.; Cork, Ireland; and Munich as well as its Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, Calif., it said. Apple’s corporate facilities globally achieved 75 percent renewable energy, and it predicted that number will grow as the amount of renewable energy available to it increases. Apple “won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent” companywide, and it’s managed to increase by 114 percent the usage of renewable energy at the corporate facilities, it said.

Apple’s data center in Maiden, N.C., “exemplifies” its approach to environmental responsibility, it said. That facility was “designed from the ground up for energy efficiency,” and earned LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council -- “to our knowledge, something no other data center of this size and type has achieved,” Apple said. Last year, Apple completed construction on the largest U.S. end user-owned, onsite solar photovoltaic array on land surrounding the data center, it said. The 100-acre, 20-megawatt facility has an annual production capacity of 42 million kWh of clean, low-carbon, renewable energy, and Apple is building a second 20-MW solar photovoltaic facility on nearby land that should be operational in late 2013, it said. In total, Apple will be producing enough onsite renewable energy -- 167 million kWh -- to power the equivalent of 17,600 homes for a year, it said. Its newest data center, under construction in Prineville, Ore., “will be every bit as environmentally responsible” as the Maiden one, it said. Oregon allows the direct wholesale purchase of renewable energy via Direct Access, and Apple is using that program to “opt out of the default grid mix” and directly access local renewable energy sources, including wind, hydro, solar and geothermal power -- “enough to power the entire facility,” it said. Like the Maiden and Prineville facilities, its data center in Newark, Calif., is being powered by 100 percent renewable energy, having reached that milestone in January when it started serving the center with energy sourced mainly from wind power, it said. It’s buying that energy direct from the wholesale market via California’s Direct Access program, it said. Apple’s next data center, in Reno, Nev., “will live up to the same high standards for environmental responsibility,” it said.

As Apple seeks renewable energy for its global facilities, it’s being “guided by three principles,” it said. First, it wants to be certain that any clean, renewable energy it creates adds to what’s already mandated by local regulations, it said. Second, it wants to “displace dirtier forms of energy with clean energy that will make a difference in the communities where we do business,” it said. Last, Apple will “rigorously measure and report our energy use to ensure that there is no double counting -- that only Apple has consumed these renewable resources,” it said. “Whenever possible,” it uses “the same renewable energy tracking systems that utilities use to demonstrate their compliance with renewable energy mandates,” it said.

Apple has been criticized by Greenpeace in the past, in the environmental group’s Guide to Greener Electronics. In the most recent guide, released in November, Apple dropped to No. 6 among the 16 CE manufacturers included from No. 5 in the prior one (CED Nov 20 p11). Greenpeace last year criticized Apple for withdrawing from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) program that’s managed by the Green Electronics Council (CED July 17 p5). Apple quickly reversed its decision and rejoined. EPEAT provides a way for consumers to gauge the potential impact a product may have on the environment.