A lot has been happening in the renewable energy realm this summer, especially when it comes to green technology. So far this year, renewables have accounted for half of the US’s energy capacity! And solar power is becoming a LOT cheaper. Check out these three recent clean energy projects from around the globe:
1. Apple is building another solar farm in order to keep to their promise that iCloud would be run with 100% renewable energy. The California-based company opened this farm in North Carolina where the sun seems to be always shining! According to Greenpeace, this is also helping NC get away from catering to Duke Energy, an oil company that has a large hold on the state.
2. Microsoft is also hopping on the renewable energy bandwagon: it purchased a wind farm in Illinois last week. Greenpeace reports that the wind will power Microsoft’s data centers in Chicago. There is already a wind farm in Texas to power Microsoft’s data centers there, but the company has not committed to a 100% renewable energy promise just yet. Still, this is a big leap forward for the tech giant!
Both of these articles are part of Greenpeace’s #ClickClean campaign, which pushes for a clean internet. The clean leaders are Google, Facebook and Apple. The dirty ones? Pinterest, Twitter and Tumblr. If you are so inclined, you can go to their website to take action and ask these “dirty sites” to use renewables for energy!
3. India’s Renewable Energy College has drawn up the plans for the world’s largest floating solar farm, reports the Economic Times.
“The technology is fairly simple. Solar panels will be set up on floating platforms which will be anchored firmly so that it does not sway. Scientists in charge of the projects are still working on the ways of securing the platform in case there are strong winds.”
Scientists will be basing their designs on a small pilot study and Japan’s floating solar farm, which opened last November.
Abbey Dufoe 