Apple building big solar energy farm in California

Apple Inc. will spend nearly $850 million on a solar energy project that will generate enough power for the computer giant’s new corporate headquarters, stores and other operations in California.

The tech company will be the biggest single consumer of energy from the new solar facility. It is being constructed on 2,900 acres in rural Monterey County, south of the Bay Area where Apple is headquartered.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, who announced the project at an investment conference Tuesday in San Francisco, said Apple is concerned about climate change. He added that the company’s computer centers already are powered by various forms of renewable energy.

Arizona-based First Solar Inc. is building the facility, which will have a capacity of 280 megawatts. Apple has signed a 25-year contract for electricity from 130 megawatts of the plant’s capacity. Cook said that will be enough to power the new headquarters that Apple is building in Cupertino, along with “every other office we have in California,” Apple’s 52 California stores and a computer center.

First Solar said it would sell the remaining electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric, the major utility for Northern California.

Construction will begin this year and the project should be finished by the end of 2016.

Apple also Tuesday became the first U.S. company to close trading with a market value above $700 billion. Record sales and profit in recent quarters have boosted its shares.

Its stock rose $2.30, or 1.9%, to $122.02, valuing Apple at more than $710 billion.