First Solar has signed a $848 million solar power deal with devices major Apple to supply power from its project in Monterey County of California.
Apple will receive electricity from 130 megawatts solar project under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
Apple will utilize the power in its campus in Silicon Valley, and its other offices and 52 stores in the state.
The solar plant will also power an Apple data center in Newark, California that already relies on solar power.
Apple will not receive any equity stake in the project, but will make the payments over the lifetime of the deal rather than all at once.
This will be the largest agreement in the industry to provide clean energy to a commercial end user, said First Solar.
First Solar is expected to start the construction of the plant in mid-2015, and will complete by the end of 2016.
The solar company will sell the output of the remaining 150 MW of the project to Pacific Gas & Electric under a separate long-term PPA.
In January, the Monterey County Planning Commission has given approval to the California Flats Solar Project.
This deal marks the first wholesale commercial and industrial PPA executed by First Solar, focusing on providing wholesale electricity through long-term agreements.
Apple already uses renewable energy to power its data centers.
Two weeks ago, Apple announced its decision to power its $2 billion global data center facility at Mesa, Arizona totally with clean energy, developed in cooperation with Salt River Project.
The solar plants installed by Salt River will provide 70 MW of solar energy for Apple, which is enough to power 14,500 Arizonan homes.
In a recent achievement, First Solar announced the launch of its Energy Capacity Assessment Tool, a first for the solar energy industry, at the 2015 World Future Energy Summit (WFES).
Sabeena Wahid
editor@greentechlead.com