Apple, the iconic technology company said this Wednesday it is planning to build a battery-based energy storage system in Central California. The site will be near a solar energy installation that already provides for the company clean energy for its facilities.
Firstly, because of its size, Apple said this could be the largest battery-based energy storage system in the United States.
Secondly, the project will store 240 megawatt-hours, which will be enough to power more than 7000 American homes for a whole day.
Thirdly, the project will be located next to the California Flats solar installation; which is in southern Monterrey County, about 100 miles from Apple’s headquarters.
Moreover, the site will send to Apple’s central offices around 130 MW of clean electricity but just during daylight hours. It won’t provide energy during the night. This, to help with stability and intermittency issues.
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Apple to share with other companies its tech developments in clean energy
In addition, Lisa Jackson, company’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives said they intend to build one of America’s largest battery-based storage systems. “The challenge with clean energy – solar and wind – is that it’s by definition intermittent.” Jackson told Reuters in interview.
She also remarked. “If we can do it, and we can show that it works for us, it takes away the concerns about intermittency; it helps the grid in terms of stabilization. It’s something that can be imitated or built upon by other companies.”
Consequently, the company will share its findings with other ones, in order for them to imitate or develop the same measure they are developing. However, she said it’s too early to say precisely how it would do so.
In fact, the company has other projects where it has shared with other ones its environmental technology developments. This include an aluminum smelting joint venture in Canada and an Apple recycling technology lab in Texas.
Finally, according to Reuters, more than 110 of Apple’s suppliers are now moving to clean energy for the work they do for Apple; with 8 gigawatts of clean energy produced as a result. Such amount of clean energy would be equivalent to removing 3,4 million cars off the road.
