Apple Inc. announced on Wednesday, March 31 that it will be building out more of its renewable energy infrastructure in Monterey County. Specifically, the Cupertino-based technology company is planning to build a battery-based solar energy storage facility in South County near Parkfield.
The location was chosen because it is right next to the California Flats solar installation, which provides energy to Apple’s California facilities during daylight hours. The fall of night, however, presently means no more energy—hence the need for storage.
According to Apple, the project will be one of the biggest battery projects in the U.S., capable of storing 240 megawatt-hours of energy or, in other words, enough to power over 7,000 homes for one day.
“The challenge with clean energy—solar and wind—is that it’s by definition intermittent,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment and former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said in an interview with Reuters. “If we can do it, and we can show that it works for us, it takes away the concerns about intermittency and it helps the grid in terms of stabilization. It’s something that can be imitated or built upon by other companies.”
The California Flats solar installation is located in the southeast corner of Monterey County. It was first proposed in 2013 and completed in 2019 despite some opposition from environmental groups. Both Apple and PG&E buy power from the solar farm.
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