Meet Apple’s new clean energy company

Watt’s going on?

Apple has committed to powering all of its operations using clean energy sources, such as the huge solar farm it built in Nevada. Recently, it has also created a new subsidy, Apple Energy LLC, in order to sell energy. Is Apple about to get into the utilities game?

That’s unlikely – it’s not the kind of high-profit business Apple likes to operate, and Apple’s filing even makes the case that Apple is too small a player in the field to influence energy prices. So what is the point in Apple Energy?

Apple’s solar farms will generate a huge amount of power at their peak, which could be even more than the company needs. That power has to go somewhere, and if Apple doesn’t need it, it will have to go to the national grid, which can cost Apple money. Apple Energy has filed to be able to sell that energy on the local grid instead, at very small scale – to adjacent businesses, for example, at a rate that benefits Apple.

This could also carry the benefit of allowing Apple to “smooth” out its energy use. Since solar farms create less power when it’s cloudy, and none at night, Apple can sell power at peak, then pull power from the grid when it needs it, and still claim net usage of clean energy.

Apple’s filing allows it to operate in other areas, though, including that it could become an energy supplier for utility companies – they might contact Apple to buy energy at a time when they expect to need more. Even if Apple doesn’t want to become a true energy company, it does like to make money.