Apple Partners With Sprint, eBay, and Samsung on New Texas Wind Farm

[MacRumors]

Apex Clean Energy today announced that Apple is leading a group of companies that has committed to purchase approximately 75 megawatts of energy from an upcoming wind farm in Texas. Sprint, eBay, and Samsung have all partnered with Apple on the agreement, and the full 500-megawatt White Mesa Wind project is scheduled to come online in early 2021.

Shared energy purchases like this allow companies to pool their energy demands and collectively support the addition of large-scale renewable energy projects to the grid. Apple brought together other technology leaders dedicated to responsible business practices - eBay, Samsung and Sprint - in the aggregation agreement, which will enable all participants to access cost-effective low-carbon renewable energy from the new project. [...]

"We're proud to be powering all of Apple's operations around the world with 100 percent renewable energy and driving the private sector to support the clean energy transition," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives. "Businesses of all sizes and of varying energy needs can help bring new, renewable energy online. This collaborative agreement in Texas is a model we hope others will replicate."

Apple has been aggressively pushing forward on its renewable energy efforts, not only moving its own operations to 100 percent renewable but pushing its suppliers to do the same. Just a few weeks ago, Apple announced that it has partnered with ten of its suppliers to invest in three wind farms in China.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Partners With Sprint, eBay, and Samsung on New Texas Wind Farm

 

[QCassidy352]

I find it sad that this story has to go in PSRI. A collaboration on renewable energy should not be a political issue.

 

[ericgtr12]

But, but they cause cancer...

"If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value, and they say the noise causes cancer."
~ Donald Trump

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

I find it sad that this story has to go in PSRI. A collaboration on renewable energy should not be a political issue.

Lol, my thoughts exactly
I found myself struggling to try to think of any way to interject politics in such a conversation.
(although hats go off to the above poster, that actually made me laugh w/ the cancer comment!)

 

[keysofanxiety]

Global warming is a myth. You can’t warm a globe if the Earth is flat.

 

[ericgtr12]

Global warming is a myth. You can’t warm a globe if the Earth is flat.

Pizza oven?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Pizza oven?

...hmmm... well whilst I don’t know anything about astronomy, astrology, gravity, meteorology, or physics in general, a pizza can’t cook itself. So checkmate.

 

[GalileoSeven]

Funny how no one mentions the long term impacts of this "clean" energy

Unfurling The Waste Problem Caused By Wind Energy

While wind energy is marketed as the future's green energy solution, turbines last only about 20 years, and disposing of their behemoth fiberglass blades is both complicated and costly.

www.npr.org

 

[benshive]

But, but they cause cancer...

"If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value, and they say the noise causes cancer."
~ Donald Trump

“We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and it’s just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine, where they’re going to take out clean coal — meaning, they’re taking out coal. They’re going to clean it — is opening in the state of Pennsylvania, the second one.”
- Donald Trump

Why risk getting windmill cancer when you can just use clean coal

 

[ericgtr12]

“We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and it’s just been announced that a second, brand-new coal mine, where they’re going to take out clean coal — meaning, they’re taking out coal. They’re going to clean it — is opening in the state of Pennsylvania, the second one.”
- Donald Trump

Why risk getting windmill cancer when you can just use clean coal

Jesus man, this is the sitting president of the United States.

 

[SuperCachetes]

Funny how no one mentions the long term impacts of this "clean" energy

Well, what I got from the article is that it's just the blades that are the main issue (primarily due to size), and there are several options for dealing with them that they are working through around the globe. The biggest obstacle in the US is that our wind energy program is "young."

Just because our fossil fuel industry is "mature" does not mean it is close to being clean. As someone who's worked in oil refineries (and whose father spent his whole life in the petrochemical industry) my recommendation is to dig a little deeper into what all is used (and then discarded) in the making of gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, etc.

 

[benshive]

Funny how no one mentions the long term impacts of this "clean" energy

Unfurling The Waste Problem Caused By Wind Energy

While wind energy is marketed as the future's green energy solution, turbines last only about 20 years, and disposing of their behemoth fiberglass blades is both complicated and costly.

www.npr.org

This is why, at least from what I understand, solar power seems to be the way to go. It's estimated that 21,250 square miles of land would need to be covered in solar panels in order to meet the energy requirements for the US. The yellow in this map is 21,250 square miles:

 

[Stephen.R]

Funny how no one mentions the long term impacts of this "clean" energy

Unfurling The Waste Problem Caused By Wind Energy

While wind energy is marketed as the future's green energy solution, turbines last only about 20 years, and disposing of their behemoth fiberglass blades is both complicated and costly.

www.npr.org

From that article:

There aren't many options to recycle or trash turbine blades, and what options do exist are expensive, partly because the U.S. wind industry is so young.

Ninety percent of a turbine's parts can be recycled or sold

Englund believes he's found a way to recycle blades by grinding them up to make chocolate chip-sized pellets. They can be used for decking materials, pallets and piping. His startup opened its first processing facility in central Texas this year, and it's leasing a second space near Des Moines, Iowa.

Even when you’re trying to paint renewables as bad it’s still light years better than fossil fuels or nuclear.

 

[Laird Knox]

This is why, at least from what I understand, solar power seems to be the way to go. It's estimated that 21,250 square miles of land would need to be covered in solar panels in order to meet the energy requirements for the US. The yellow in this map is 21,250 square miles:
View attachment 875099

The problem then becomes distribution. It is not insurmountable but you can't just stick everything in a corner of the country. In fact they are currently doing work to send power FROM Cheyenne, Wyoming TO Las Vegas, Nevada to service the grids in NV, CA, and AZ. Seems crazy but it's complicated.

TransWest Express Transmission Project: Delivering Wyoming Wind Energy

TransWest Express Transmission Project: Delivering Wyoming Wind Energy

www.transwestexpress.net

 

[benshive]

The problem then becomes distribution. It is not insurmountable but you can't just stick everything in a corner of the country. In fact they are currently doing work to send power FROM Cheyenne, Wyoming TO Las Vegas, Nevada to service the grids in NV, CA, and AZ. Seems crazy but it's complicated.

TransWest Express Transmission Project: Delivering Wyoming Wind Energy

TransWest Express Transmission Project: Delivering Wyoming Wind Energy

www.transwestexpress.net

Yes distribution is definitely a factor. The yellow square in the photograph was just to illustrate that the required panels wouldn't take up a crazy amount of space. They would certainly need to be spread out across the country

 

[Laird Knox]

Yes distribution is definitely a factor. The yellow square in the photograph was just to illustrate that the required panels wouldn't take up a crazy amount of space. They would certainly need to be spread out across the country

Depends on your definition of "crazy amount of space." You are basically talking about an area the size of Croatia. Add in facilities to support those panels and you are looking more at the entire nation of Ireland. Now add in something for nighttime energy usage...

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of alternative energy. I just think we lose perspective on the scale sometimes.

 

[benshive]

Depends on your definition of "crazy amount of space." You are basically talking about an area the size of Croatia. Add in facilities to support those panels and you are looking more at the entire nation of Ireland. Now add in something for nighttime energy usage...

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of alternative energy. I just think we lose perspective on the scale sometimes.

Yeah but we're talking about for the entire country's energy needs, meaning you would need to factor in the size of all of the current facilities that would no longer be needed. I would be very curious to see what the size of those facilities condensed into a similar square on a map would look like.

 

[Kabeyun]

Pizza oven?

The earth is a pizza oven?

 

[Stephen.R]

The earth is a pizza oven?

I bet pastafarians would know.

 

[SBlue1]

Who is here for the negative comments? ?

 

[ericgtr12]

The earth is a pizza oven?

Afflicted with pizza warming.

 

[Kabeyun]

I bet pastafarians would know.

A flying pizza monster? Now that’s something to believe in!

 

[Stephen.R]

A flying pizza monster? Now that’s something to believe in!

What kind of Flying Spaghetti Monster deitydoesn’t have a garlic bread side deity.

And we all know the best garlic bread comes from a pizza oven.

 

[PickUrPoison]

<snip>
And we all know the best garlic bread comes from a pizza oven.

You don’t know us do you?

MR posters know the most about things we don’t know anything about. You know, the unknown knowns.

Just ask me. I’ll tell you everything I (think I know but don’t) know about

PS Despite the above, yes on the pizza oven garlic bread!

 

[Stephen.R]

You don’t know us do you?

I don't need to know you to know good garlic bread

Although having said that. "Quick" GB made via diagonal slices of a stale-ish bread stick in a griddle pan (as opposed to the whole thing in foil in an oven) is actually quite good.

I guess that means the sacred church of garlic bread (itself an offshoot of pastafarianism) will need to split into oven-baked and pan-grilled kinds. Not that different to the condom debate within christianity I guess- arguing over the use of a thin wrapper around your loaf to contain the juices....