If you can’t beat them, join them. Nevada utility NV Energy has taken heavy fire for the dismantling of net metering in the state as well as facing a wave of its large electricity consumers jumping ship, and is taking a different approach with for one of its largest customers: Apple.
NV Energy has announced an agreement to sell electricity to Apple from a 200 MW solar project which the utility plans to build “by early 2019,” which will supply an Apple data center in Reno.
The power company says that it will file an application with state regulators to enter into a power contract for the plant, which will bring NV Energy’s total solar portfolio to over 529 MW either under construction or pending approval.
One interesting aspect of this deal is that it could have gone the other way around. As Apple has received federal approval to buy and sell power, it could have just as easily entered a contract to supply NV Energy. The tech company has made a commitment to power its operations with 100% renewable energy, and GTM Research says that this puts them on the leading edge of a new type of corporate customer.
“This is a continuation of the growth of corporate off-takers really understanding their energy needs and taking control of it,” GTM Research Colin Smith told pv magazine. “This seems to be NV Energy’s response that they need to handle these customers in a different way and are helping them meet these goals in a coordinated fashion.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
1 comment
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.