![]() ![]() Matt assumed optimal weather conditions and premium panels for higher wattage. I asked one of our PV designers at, Matt Collins, to run a cursory solar analysis of the main campus features that appear to have solar - the spaceship building and two parking structures - and estimate the amount of solar that could fit on these rooftops. Is Apple Park’s solar panel system feasible? Apple’s 17MW of solar would be the equivalent amount of power needed to supply roughly 2,400 homes, assuming an average home solar system size of 7kW. The largest installed commercial-scale system today is only 4.26MW in Edison New Jersey. If the Apple Campus 2 headquarters indeed produce 17MW of solar, that would blow every other commercial system in the United States out of the water.Īs a comparison, Google’s headquarters, GooglePlex, is only 1.6MW. The remaining energy needed will be supplied by a 130-megawatt off-site solar farm in Monterey County. They’re hoping that this onsite generation will cover around 75% of power requirements during working hours. It will generate 17 megawatts (MW) of solar on rooftops and also be supplemented by 4 megawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells. has profiled Apple’s other tech giant brethren and their clean energy adoption projects, like Amazon installing solar on all of their distribution centers.Īpple has already proclaimed that 100% of its data centers and 96% of its other facilities run on renewable energy.Īccording to Renewable Energy World, the campus will run entirely on renewable energy. The prominence of solar on this project reflects a larger strategy of renewable energy proliferation in the tech sphere. Even the 10,000-car parking structures are completely covered by panels (which appear to be bi-facial!). What piqued our interest into this mega-project was the drone footage that revealed solar panels covering almost every inch of every roof on the buildings. The main building, what many have dubbed the “spaceship,” is an incredible 2.8 million square feet. The 175-acre campus is costing the tech giant an estimated $5 billion and will house roughly 12,000 employees once fully operational. ![]() While these are just a few snippits, we’re likely to hear more as construction work progresses.Īpple places a high priority on its environmental credentials, hiring former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to oversee environmental issues, building a dedicated microsite for environmental responsibility, releasing an Earth Day video narrated by Tim Cook, and running press ads calling on other companies to follow its example.Apple’s brand new headquarters is quickly approaching completion. Apple says the building will have natural ventilation for 75% of the year. The new HQ will also save money on heating and cooling. Once completed, Apple says that not only will 100 percent of its energy come from renewable sources (Apple is building a large solar farm at the site), but that the unique design of the structure means it will require far less energy to run than a conventional building. Trees cleared from the construction site are being turned into lumber for use in the building. This includes recycling all of the concrete from its present headquarters to form part of the foundations of the new campus. Apple says it’s using over 90% of the old headquarters in building the new one. After Tim Cook recently claimed at an environmental conference that its new ‘Spaceship’ headquarters would be “the greenest building on the planet,” Apple today provided (via Business Insider) a few illustrative facts and figures to support the claim.įor example, Cupertino law requires that construction sites reuse at least 75% of their demolished materials. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |