Apple has just become an energy company, looks to sell excess electricity into the grid

9to5Mac ^ | 4 months ago | Seth Weintraub

[aquila48]

Apple has quietly created an energy subsidiary, ‘Apple Energy’ LLC, registered in Delaware but run from its Cupertino headquarters. The company was seemingly formed to allow it to sell excess electricity generated by its solar farms in Cupertino and Nevada, with plans to sell electricity across the whole of the US.

[Apple Energy LLC] is a Delaware limited liability company and is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc. [Contact is] Apple Energy LLC, One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014

Given Apple’s expertise and huge commitment to using renewable energy to power its operations, it is no surprise that it wants to ensure that its solar farms generate sufficient power to meet its needs. Because the sun only shines during the day obviously, Apple needs to shift its generation and its usage. Data centers need to go 24/7. Apple Stores are open in the evening. Apple has alternatives for this at its campus (see Fuel Cell generation below) but if it wants to operate 100% renewable, it has to “trade” overcapacity during the middle of the day for “net-metered” energy during the evening or cloudy days.

Apple’s Cupertino Campus 2 Photovoltaics are rated at 14 megawatts alone.

But a set of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings suggests that Apple could have bigger ambitions in the power field …

Currently, when private companies sell their excess power, they can only do so to energy companies – and they often (varies by state) have to sell at wholesale rates. What Apple seemingly could to do, however, is sell directly to end-users at market rates. In other words, get paid retail prices for its excess power.

Currently companies like Green Mountain Power can sell green renewable energy to homeowners all over the US.

[Swordmaker]

Although Apple has always sold excess Co-Generation power back into the grid, it looks as if Apple is trying to set up a full business segment for doing so. Give a new meaning to the idea of a Power Mac, doesn't it? — PING!

Apple Power Mac?
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[jsanders2001]

So we’re going to bit coin the grid so to speak are we?
Sorta reminds of a pyramid scheme in a way.

[aquila48]

“So we’re going to bit coin the grid so to speak are we?”

Regarding Bitcoins... If you had bought $1000 worth of bitcoins in may of 2010 (a mere 6 years ago), today you would be worth about $600 million. Probably the best investment of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin

[VRWC For Truth]

The faggotry is strong with this one ...

[vooch]

thinking all Big Box retailers will soon have GW of solar capacity

all thousand thousand of acres of flat roofs in areas with 2,000 Hours of sunlight

[Gen.Blather]

It is cheaper for energy companies using oil or gas to make their own energy rather than buy the higher cost solar. This is already a problem in California. Solar companies have been rent seeking to force energy companies to buy their product, which subtracts directly from the energy company’s bottom line. The people hurt are the elderly investors who favor energy companies.

Bottom line, solar can’t exist without subsidies. The argument is whose pocket the subsidies come from. Companies using oil and gas have been demonized to the point that liberal legislatures won’t protect them. But who, in the end pays? Ordinary people who don’t really have a voice in the government they elect.

[XEHRpa]

< sarcasm > Like liberal govt pays farmers not to plot crops, Apple will be paid by extracting excess battery energy from recharging Ipods and dumping it into the grid.< /sarcasm >

[jsanders2001]

< Regarding Bitcoins... If you had bought $1000 worth of bitcoins in may of 2010 (a mere 6 years ago), today you would be worth about $600 million. Probably the best investment of all time.

But if we’re talking from the point of being a consumer of electrical power it would mean I’d be paying a helluva lot more for my electricity today than 6 years ago due to market manipulation, I mean if it were treated as a commodity to be traded, bought, sold, right?

[lacrew]

There is a hidden subsidy here...the law that forces power companies to allow use of their lines and substations...for ‘small players’ like Apple is immoral...even more so if Apple gets retail rates but has jone of these expenses.

[ASOC]

I believe the people that actually *use* the generated power ‘pay for the transmission line’ in most areas. They do here.

My son (lives in TX) pays ‘green wind power’. Some months his bill is zero - he pays for the line fees is all. Sadly, not everyone has or gets a choice.

I say bravo to Apple - companies exist to make a profit.