first published week of: 08/15/2016
Apple can start reaping the fruits of its $850 million Monterey County solar power investment.
Federal energy regulators Thursday approved the firm's application to start selling electricity at market rates.
Apple's solar power investments can generate 20 megawatts of electricity in Nevada, 50 megawatts in Arizona and 130 megawatts in California. The latter output -- enough to power tens of thousands of homes -- will come from Apple's $850 million partnership with sun-farm company First Solar, at the California Flats solar project in southeast Monterey County.
"It allows them to sell electricity into the wholesale markets and also use the wholesale markets as sort of a hedge," said GTM Research analyst Colin Smith. "If they're buying power at 10 cents per kilowatt hour and wholesale power prices happen to move up to 15 cents, they can actually sell power directly and pocket the difference. This turns them much more into an independent power producer and really enables them to work the energy markets more freely." continued…