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Comment by hristov | Hacker News Reader

This is very good news. It is especially interesting coming from apple, because apple are incredibly ... shall we say frugal. If they opted for a solar plant they must have calculated that it is in their financial interest. Which means that solar plants are becoming price competitive.

This is not surprising considering the plummeting cost of solar panels.

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Not necessarily, it could very well be a PR trick. Going solar is trendy so they may have done it to get some press. It pays off but maybe in extra iPhone sales /brand building

I have absolutely no doubt there is some PR behind the decision, but it should also be cost-effective in the long term.

I like to think PR and costs weren't the only drivers of this...Steve Jobs was quite the hippie capitalist, so I like to think he instigated a move into this space :)

Dude, if Apple is liked and their brand loved even more, that $xxx million spent on solar there is nothing, even if it's declared a total loss. So, in theory, you can be a total capitalist and "waste money."

My point was not to assume that this makes sense economically just because Apple did it. They have other ways of getting their money back and if they lose, it's just a rounding error http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cf?s=AAPL&annual

You sure have seen the Beyond Petroleum ads, haven't you? http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/01/15/beyond-petrole...

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