The investments are part of Apple's drive to achieve carbon neutrality across its business and product life cycle by 2030
Solar in Reno and wind in Chicago are two of a string of major new investments in renewable energy from tech giant Apple, as part of a $4.7bn green bond spending spree that the firm claims will generate a total of 1.2GW of clean power.
According to a new update from the tech giant, Apple funded 17 projects with proceeds from its Green Bond issuances, claiming the new infrastructure will avoid an average of 921,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to removing nearly 200,000 cars from the road.
Since then, the projects have added over 350 megawatts of newly installed renewable energy, encompassing projects in Nevada, Illinois, Virginia and Denmark, the firm said.
In Nevada, a 180-acre, 50MW solar site located within the Reno Technology Park is now providing power to the Apple Nevada data centre. In Illinois, a 112-MW virtual power purchase agreement with a wind farm covers Apple's electricity use in the Chicago region. In Virginia, Apple worked with Etsy, Akamai and SwissRE to develop 165MW of solar power outside Fredericksburg. And in Esbjerg, Denmark, Apple has completed construction of a pair of 200-metre tall wind turbines that are expected to produce 62 gigawatt hours of power each year, enough to power 200,000 homes, the company said.
"Apple is dedicated to protecting the planet we all share with solutions that are supporting the communities where we work," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives. "We all have a responsibility to do everything we can to fight against the impacts of climate change, and our $4.7bn investment of the proceeds from our Green Bond sales is an important driver in our efforts."
The new projects are detailed in the tech firm's annual Green Bond Impact Report, the latest version of which was published this morning.
It states that Apple has to date allocated more than half of its total Green Bond spend with its investments aiming to power progress towards Apple's overarching climate goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 across its business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle.