According to Apple’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filing, it will only be able to sell its surplus power legally at market rates as it is not a big energy company that can influence the price of electricity. The company has hundreds of megawatts of solar projects. Producing 80 million kilowatt hours per year of clean energy the solar farms will provide far more energy than is needed to power all of Apple’s corporate offices and retail stores in China. They aren’t running 100 percent on renewable energy across the board (although they are in 23 countries, including the United States).
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Besides using the new company to power its own facilities, Apple has plans to sell its excess energy to other companies. This means that Apple can sell energy directly to consumers.
The iPhone company plans to sell off excess electricity to help recoup costs by selling to power companies at wholesale rates, which then gets sold onward to end customers.
Apple has created a subsidiary energy company, 9to5Mac reported Friday. It has requested permission begin within 60 days of its filing on 6th June.
Alphabet’s Google won similar authority back in 2010, Bloomberg noted.
Apple has shown that it will put its money where its mouth is when it comes to clean energy. Currently, Apple has solar farms in Cupertino and Nevada, and is working to add more. Last year, the company launched two new programs to reduce the carbon footprint of its Chinese manufacturing partners.
The company issued a $1.5 billion green bond dedicated to financing environmental projects, becoming the first American tech company to issue such a bond. It’s a possibility that Apple has anticipated future growth of the tech industry and is planning to build power generation capacity that might just exceed its own needs.
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Consequently, the technology giant believes that it should be allowed to sell its excess energy at market rates.
