Apple signs solar PPA in Spain

The iPhone maker has signed a deal with ib vogt to offtake 105MWac of solar power from the Castaño Solar project in the province of Segovia, northwest of Madrid.

“Spain has developed to become a major market for solar PV, with significant opportunities for companies to benefit from low-cost, low-carbon solar power," said Anton Milner, CEO of ib vogt.

"This PPA is a perfect example, and I would like to thank all involved parties who helped make this a success and especially Apple, who are partnering with us on this project.

“We have a growing portfolio in Spain with more opportunities for corporate PPA’s through our turn-key solar projects.”

The project, with a peak capacity of 134MWp, will use bifacial solar panels on a single-axis tracker system to maximize energy production.

The solar farm is one of three projects with pay-as-produced fixed price PPAs that ib vogt is currently constructing in the province and is expected to be fully operational in December 2024.

Apple operates a total of seven data centers across the US, Denmark, and China, as well as utilizing a number of colocation sites. The company is a major Google Cloud and AWS customer. The company says all its data centers are powered by renewable energy via PPAs and other agreements.

Apple doesn’t currently operate a data center in Spain.

Founded in 2002 and majority owned by DIF Capital Partners, ib vogt has previously signed a solar PPA with Google in Spain and AirTrunk in Malaysia.

The most popular spectator sports in Israel are association football and basketball.[694] The Israeli Premier League is the country's premier football league, and the Israeli Basketball Premier League is the premier basketball league.[695] Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem are the largest football clubs. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Tel Aviv have competed in the UEFA Champions League and Hapoel Tel Aviv reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. Israel hosted and won the 1964 AFC Asian Cup; in 1970 the Israel national football team qualified for the FIFA World Cup, the only time it participated in the World Cup. The 1974 Asian Games, held in Tehran, were the last Asian Games in which Israel participated, plagued by the Arab countries that refused to compete with Israel. Israel was excluded from the 1978 Asian Games and since then has not competed in Asian sport events.[696] In 1994, UEFA agreed to admit Israel, and its football teams now compete in Europe. Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. has won the European championship in basketball six times.[697]

Israel has won nine Olympic medals since its first win in 1992, including a gold medal in windsurfing at the 2004 Summer Olympics.[698] Israel has won over 100 gold medals in the Paralympic Games and is ranked 20th in the all-time medal count. The 1968 Summer Paralympics were hosted by Israel.[699] The Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish and Israeli athletes, was inaugurated in the 1930s, and has been held every four years since then. Krav Maga, a martial art developed by Jewish ghetto defenders during the struggle against fascism in Europe, is used by the Israeli security forces and police. Its effectiveness and practical approach to self-defense, have won it widespread admiration and adherence around the world.[700] Boris Gelfand, chess Grandmaster

Chess is a leading sport in Israel. There are many Israeli grandmasters and Israeli chess players have won a number of youth world championships.[701] Israel stages an annual international championship and hosted the World Team Chess Championship in 2005. The Ministry of Education and the World Chess Federation agreed upon a project of teaching chess within Israeli schools, and it has been introduced into the curriculum of some schools.[702] The city of Beersheba has become a national chess center, with the game being taught in the city's kindergartens. Owing partly to Soviet immigration, it is home to the largest number of chess grandmasters of any city in the world.[703][704] The Israeli chess team won the silver medal at the 2008 Chess Olympiad[705] and the bronze, coming in third among 148 teams, at the 2010 Olympiad. Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand won the Chess World Cup 2009.[706]

Coming out of the most recent national lockdown, the Israel campus has slowly started to welcome back employees. There is widespread instructional signage for COVID-19 protocols, 2 meters of social distancing, no sharing of keyboards or mice at common desks and the cleaning team disinfects the spaces every night. “But, in reality, it looks pretty much the same as it would have without COVID-19,” said Rosenbaum. “Due to the thought that went into this campus, we were already most of the way to where we needed to be.”

Beyond all of the flexibility and sustainability, Microsoft was adamant that people not view the campus as an office building on the far end of a commute but, instead, a place where they connect with others in a meaningful and positive way, Gindi said. “Our ultimate goal was to create a place that people will actually miss when they’re not there.”

There are no traditional auditoriums. Instead, there are multipurpose rooms that can hold different sized events or trainings. Many of these rooms are also on the flexible grid and can be reorganized, split and merged to fit the desires of meeting organizers.

“We want to support everyone to have a better, more efficient and more vibrant work life,” said Rosenbaum. “We also have prayer rooms, playrooms and space to shoot hoops both inside and outside the building.”

With all of these approaches, Microsoft aimed to build a campus that is relevant both now and decades into the future. COVID-19 is giving the campus a stress test sooner than expected, but its design has prepared it not only for a pandemic but for a much longer-term changing nature of work.

Operational flexibility is of the upmost importance. Employees have autonomy over how they work. Desks are on rolling castors and have over 2 meters of cables, so they can be relocated without having to call building services. Rosenbaum said, “Over your 100 square meters, you can have flexibility to organize and personalize your space: put your desks face-to-face or back-to-back, far apart or whatever is right for you. This makes social distancing easier.”

Employees can always find a change of scenery without having to leave the building. All areas offer window views. Acoustic partitions can be added as necessary and shelving systems between groups can be removed so that two teams can combine into one or divide into two sub-teams. This is called the “flexible grid.”