It should come as no surprise that electronics manufacturer Apple uses a lot of electricity. What might come as a surprise, however, is where that electricity comes from. In a report issued recently, the company announced that their operations are now powered by at least 75% renewable energy. This report marks a significant milestone in an ongoing effort to reduce Apple’s environmental impact.
The report marks not only an increase in renewable energy, but also in the transparency surrounding these renewable power sources. Previously Apple has drawn criticism from activist groups like Greenpeace over their disclosure policies. Despite Apple being one of the more environmentally friendly companies in their industry, environmental activists desired more openness about their policies. Greenpeace acknowledged Apple’s latest release of information, but is still not fully satisfied with the level of disclosure.
Energy Use in Data Centers
Apple’s major use of energy falls into two different categories – power required for manufacturing and power required for data centers. Data centers use up large amounts of power, and globally data centers account for up to 2% of electricity used. Apple’s flagship data center in Maiden, North Carolina is powered by a massive array of solar panels, which combined with other renewable energy sources power the data center from 100% renewable energy. The data centers host data for iTunes, iCloud, Siri, and other online services. Apple’s headquarters is also powered entirely on renewable energy. Other data centers vary in power sources, but average to 75% renewable company-wide.
Renewable Manufacturing
Apple’s other major use of power goes to manufacturing their products such as the iMac, MacBooks, iPhones and iPads. An Apple spokesperson pointed out that Apple is unique among their peers in that they focus not just on energy use at data centers, but also at their manufacturing facilities. Although many products are made overseas, some are still made in the US. Notably among those produced in the United States is the Mac Mini, which Apple recently announced would be produced entirely in the US. Apple’s newest iMacs are made with 68% less material than their predecessors, making them much more environmentally friendly
Apple has said that they plan to continue increasing use of renewable energy. A new data center currently under construction in Prineville, Oregon, will run off a mixture of renewable energy sources. Many electronic devices exist to facilitate efficient use of power, like a 48v switching power supply, but we don’t know much about what devices are used in Apple’s data centers. Apple hasn’t announced many specifics in terms of how fast they will expand use of renewable resources, but we can assume that they will continue to improve in the future.
