Did Apple Cave to Radical Environmentalist Group?
- Posted on May 18, 2012 at 11:56am by
Liz Klimas
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Greenpeace protesters parked this pod in front of Apple Headquarters this week. (Photo: Greenpeace via Facebook)
Just this week, two Greenpeace protesters were arrested outside of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., for parking a pod and projecting messages about the company’s unclean energy use onto the building. This isn’t the first time the environmental group has called out Apple on its energy practices. At the time, Apple noted it was already implementing “green” practices at its data center that was drawing criticism from Greenpeace for using coal power.
(Related: Greenpeace activists arrested for a prank using this giant pod outside of Apple HQ)
Now, just a couple days after Greenpeace’s latest protest, Apple announced it would be using 100 percent renewable energy at its Maiden, North Carolina, data center by the end of 2012. Still, some experts wonder just how feasible it is for a data center to go 100 percent green.
(Graphic: Apple)
Using 20 megawatts of power at full capacity, Apple states that 60 percent of this energy will come from onsite solar arrays it is installing and a non-utility fuel cell.
Here’s more about the green energy the data center will have onsite:
We’re currently building two solar array installations in and around Maiden. These sites use high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. A 100-acre, 20-megawatt installation on the same site as our data center will produce 42 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy annually. A 100-acre site located a few miles away will produce another 42 million kWh. Together that’s 84 million kWh of clean, renewable energy supplied annually. When our bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation comes online later this year, it will provide more than 40 million kWh of renewable energy annually. This means Apple will be producing enough onsite renewable energy — 124 million kWh — to power the equivalent of 10,874 homes.
In addition to the energy it will be producing, Wired reports the company plans to get other supplementary energy it needs from local power plants that only derive their energy from renewable sources. These energy providers are not named.
Also, perhaps in an effort to stave off further protests or questions from activists, Apple’s webpage also says that it is making a point of being transparent with its energy process. Allowing the public to “follow our progress,” the company is registering its renewable energy generated onsite with the North Carolina Renewable Energy Tracking System (NC-RETS).
(Graphic: Apple)
Although Apple has been planning these green initiatives for some time, the timing of the recent announcement makes it appear that the company is caving to pressure from environmental groups. Wired reports Greenpeace, while pleased with the announcement, isn‘t stopping the campaign it’s begun called “Clean the Cloud:”
Apple’s announcement today is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal,” a Greenpeace spokesman said in an e-mail message.
Greenpeace wants Apple — and Microsoft and Amazon too, for that matter — to promise to make renewable energy a priority even as it builds new data centers. “Only then will customers have confidence that the iCloud will continue to get cleaner as it grows,” Greenpeace said.
ZDNet questions whether the expectation for data centers to run on 100 percent renewable energy is really even possible. Given that only 15 percent of the energy produced in the United States comes from renewable sources, ZDNet points out it may be impractical for data centers to rely completely on this source given that there may not be sufficient supply. Going further, it states:
If you really want to campaign for renewable energy in datacenters, don’t just complain about the use of fossil fuels; provide alternatives that can be implemented now, not ones that require decades of rebuilding of the entire power generation infrastructure of the world. Practical, technology driven solutions that have a business advantage will result in organic deployment of those solutions. Just about anything else will result in little more than PR announcements and little real change.
ZDNet does acknowledge the benefit to Apple going green in this way will at least pay off “in the field of public opinion.”
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EdWheeler4Health
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 11:19pmPeople wake up! 52% of our electricity comes from COAL! We spend millions making it clean! 2% comes from “renewable”, “green” do we really want to give up HALF of our electricity!!!
CO2 is NOT A POLLUTANT!
Stand up and tell these fools to get out of our country if they don’t like it!
Report Post »maryanne3935
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 8:57pmWhen do we stop allowing the inmates run the asylum. Our companies and also our citizens are getting so use to being abused. I just called Laura Sanchez a congresswoman in CA, of course, who is touting Asian Pacific Month. I said to her that I am so sick and tired of Americans not acting like Americans. Whether you are irish, italian, german, russian, whatever, you get my drift. How about just understanding that your ancestors or your parents came to this country for a better life. Why don’t we celebrate being Americans every day of the year. Now we have green peace telling Apple how to run its company or they blackmail. If I were Apple I would tell them to go to hell, who has any respect for Green Peace a bunch of thugs who now believe their own power and BS.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 3:39pmDidn’t the greenies used to lambaste golf courses for \using so much land for their courses? Why aren’t they doing the same with the solar companies? My prediction is that the solar arrays will not be enough to provide energy for Apple. They will have to sneak in some other form of power to keep those servers and the building running, especially climate control.
Report Post »TheJeffersonian
Posted on May 19, 2012 at 1:36pmI liked the part where you suggested there were no differences between a golf course and a solar power plant.
Report Post »mountainbiker
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 2:21pmDamn, they just missed being able to do business with Solyndra.
Report Post »bobbie22
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 1:53pmThese environmentalists should go back to their cave.
Report Post »woodcellar
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 1:06pmJust how is putting a couple of hunderd acres in the shade of solar panels so that nothing can grow there GREEN. Just asking.
Report Post »natoir
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 1:02pmRADICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST ….that is funny
Report Post »2012hey
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:46pmOf course Apple caved – Al Gore is on their BOARD!
Report Post »maryanne3935
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 8:58pmAl Gore is on their board, they get what they deserve, Why is count dracula serving on their board. His time has come and gone, what a cliche he is.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:31pm“Did Apple cave to radical environmentalist group?”
“Although Apple has been planning these green initiatives for some time, the timing of the recent announcement makes it appear that the company is caving to pressure from environmental groups.”
As with most articles that begin with a question, the answer is “No, but it’s no fun to just come out and say that until halfway through the article.”
Report Post »neillwd
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:30pmOther than PR, how does this expensive and hight maintenance energy source benefit the stock holders?
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:22pmScrew “Green peace”! Years ago I sold a chemical plant in Europe and these dopes threatened to KILL any rigger that went on site to remove items from the plant! They are Anything but peaceful… dopes!
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:19pmSo…
200+ acres of land to power one site.
That sounds really reasonable and practical.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:06pmIf Liberals had any Common Sense… they would not be Commie Liberals!
Report Post »TeaBill
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:04pmHoly Crap! How much more will I have to pay for my next Mac?
Report Post »Let’s clear-cut a forest to place a bunch of solar panels in the otherwise beautiful forest.
I mean, I would love to get off the grid as much as the next person, but come on already!
JRook
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:24pm“company is caving to pressure from environmental groups” Or perhaps they are just acting in a responsible manner and becoming good citizens. And given the relative price of Apple products, they are making more than enough to fund responsible energy practices. Rather than criticize them for “caving” perhaps the author should commend their forward thinking. Or does that phrase sound too progressive.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:54pm“How much more will I have to pay for my next Mac?”
Well, you already sold your dignity to buy your current one. And if you could shell out for it, then you must not be hurting for money too badly.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:55pmJROOK
Go back and read the article. Apple announced a couple of years age about the construction of the solar panels.
Report Post »This is simply a green peace PR event so as to make it appear as is they have clout; are still meaningful, even though people like me saw a couple of decades ago that they had become eco-terrorists rather than very concerned citizens.
Tri-ox
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 11:59amSo, what’s new?
Report Post »