CUPERTINO, CA—Tech giant Apple has announced a significant expansion of its clean energy portfolio across Europe, with new large-scale solar and wind farms under development in Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Romania.
In conjunction with a newly operational solar array in Spain, the projects are set to add a total of 650 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity to electrical grids throughout Europe in the coming years. Apple stated these initiatives will generate over 1 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean electricity on behalf of its users by 2030.
This move is a direct step towards Apple’s ambitious Apple 2030 goal: to become carbon neutral across its entire footprint, including the energy customers use to charge their devices. Product use—the energy required to charge and power Apple devices—accounted for approximately 29% of the company’s overall greenhouse gas emissions in 2024.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, highlighted the user-focused aspect of the plan. “By 2030, we want our users to know that all the energy it takes to charge their iPhone or power their Mac is matched with clean electricity,” she said. She added that the new European projects will help achieve the Apple 2030 goal while contributing to “healthy communities, thriving economies, and secure energy sources across the continent.”
Environmental Concerns and Data Centres
The tech sector’s high energy consumption, particularly from massive data centres, remains a growing concern for environmental groups.
This is a particularly pressing issue in Ireland, which hosts over 80 data centres. These facilities currently consume about 22% of the country’s electricity, a figure experts project will rise in the coming years. The sheer energy demand of data centres has previously caused friction. In a notable case, Apple canceled its planned €850 million data centre in Athenry, Co Galway, in 2018 following protracted legal and planning challenges that delayed the project’s start.
