Apple Inc. owns Largest Private Solar System in U.S.

       Apple Inc. had announced on Friday that fully 75% of its corporate facilities as well as their data centers are powered by renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power. This is because Apple has built the nation's largest privately owned solar array for its Maiden, N.C., data center.
       "In 2012, we completed construction on the nation's largest end user-owned, onsite photovoltaic array on land surrounding the data center," the company had disclosed on Friday, announcing plans to shoot for 100% renewable power sources. "The 100-acre 20-megawatt facility is able to produce 42 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy sources," Apple said. "And we're currently building a second 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility on nearby land that should be operational in late 2013."
        Apple has also operated a 10-megawatt fuel cell installation at Maiden, which uses biogas to create 83 million kilowatt hours of energy. "It's the largest such facility not operated by a power company in the country," the company had claimed.
        Greenpeace International senior IT analyst Gary Cook had applauded Apple Inc. for how far it has come, while also noting the challenges ahead. "Apple's announcement shows that it has made real progress in its commitment to lead the way to a clean energy future," Cook said. "Apple still has major roadblocks to meeting its 100% clean energy commitment in North Carolina, where renewable energy policies are under siege and electric utility Duke Energy is intent on blocking wind and solar energy from entering the grid," he added.
        Apple proclaimed, "Its goal was not for just North Carolina but for facilities across the country and around the world. We won't stop working until we achieve 100% throughout Apple."

Apple has built the nation's largest privately owned solar array for its Maiden, N.C., data center

Uruguay Plans Cheap Solar Energy!

       The South American nation, Uruguay, is offering contracts to buy power equivalent to 200 megawatts of solar farms at the world's cheapest rates. Ramon Mendez, a director of energy at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, has remarked that President Jose Mujica is planning to sign a decree that will require Uruguay's national power utility to purchase electricity from projects at a set rate of $90 a megawatt hour. The nation plans to produce some of the world's cheapest energy, referring mostly to solar and wind energy projects.
         China is offering Uruguay $160 a megawatt hour while Germany offers $154.33 a megawatt hour. Four months after the decree is passed, developers have the opportunity of proposing offers at a first-come first-serve basis. Mendez recalls that three companies have already proclaimed in selling at the price of $90 a megawatt hour. However, if the offers fail, they will plan to wait another couple of years until the equipment prices drop and they will try again.
        The decree that is to be issued also calls for a bid of developing a 1-megawatt and a 5-megawatt plant. Both these projects are to provide the national power utility power for 25 years at a price. Though this decree is currently in circulation, 80% of the nation's electricity is derived from hydroelectric power plants, costing on average $80 a megawatt hour. In a 2011 auction, Uruguay was offered a contract of  power at $63 a megawatt hour from wind developers. This nation has many projects in development to sustain their population as a low-cost nation.

Latin America is Focused on Solar Energy!

     Argentina and Venezuela, which are the least renewable energy countries in Latin America, is planning on expanding on solar capacity as the government is willing to support their finances with a few incentives. International developers have actually been helping Argentina by planning plants, which gets as twice the solar radiation of Germany, which is the largest solar market at this time.
     According to Marcelo Alvarez, head of solar for trade group Camara Argentina de Energia Renovable (CADER), he claims that in 2012, Argentina has applied to build 11 projects of 20 megawatts each. By doing so, this would be helping President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's administration in meeting 8% of Argentina's power by 2016, in which the present time in 2013, it is now 2%.
     Argentina plans to build 3,000 megawatts in clean-energy capacity, of which approximately 10% may come from solar energy. About 625 megawatts are mainly in operation, which most of them are small hydropower projects and solar energy reigns only 6.2 megawatts.
     In 2011, regulation has been passed that allows developers to negotiate premium tariffs with the government and grid operation without relying on clean-energy tenders arranged by Energia Argentina SA, the state energy company. Officials have been concentrated on organizing and developing long-term contracts for power from the plants, bringing an interest from companies residing in Spain to China.
     However, Argentina has granted long-term contracts for 895 megawatts in 2010, whereas it included 20 megawatts awarded towards Genneia SA for Argentina's first large solar parks, enabling the energy to be enough to power 30,000 homes. In this, Energia Argentina SA has been backing five companies in starting the projects before the government is able to sign off the tariffs that will support the renewable energy industry.
    In reference to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank and New Energy Finanace, Brazil has been leading Latin America in installed renewables capacity. Latin America and the Caribbean have more than 6,000 megawatts of solar sites under development, which includes about 2,800 megawatts in Chile and 1,400 in Brazil.

UPS, the delivery giant, gets involved with solar!

      

      Within these past few year, many companies have been getting involved with solar-powered technology as it is impacting the world on a global level. They have mostly been focusing on producing and installing solar panels to obtain electricity in a healthy cost-efficient way. One major corporation, known as the UPS, realized its benefits in this expanding time and has made it official by announcing its latest project, in installing solar energy installations in its locations in Parsippany and Secaucus, New Jersey.
      The project that was constructed in Parsippany, New Jersey, was a 1.2 megawatt installation that was completed last Fall in the year of 2012. The project in Secaucus is said to also produce a 1.2 megawatt installation that will be completed at the end of Spring this year. In a public statement, Steve Leffin, whom is the director of global sustainability at UPS, claimed that he and his team will be overseeing every aspect of the design and installations, which he believes to be extremely beneficial.
      "Federal and state government incentives and state government incentives encouraged our investments in solar energy sources," said Steve Leffin. "We develop, engineer, own and operate our solar capacity, which is a departure from contracted power-purchase agreements in which a company pays a solar power provider for a set price of electricity for 20 years. Under this arrangement, we not only benefit at UPS, but can also help community power grids by providing a hedge against possible energy price hikes during peak usage times."

Source : UPS pressroom