Apple just made a major investment in Chinese wind power

UPDATE: Dec. 9, 2016, 10:20 a.m. EST Editor's note: This story has been updated to note that Apple had been purchasing wind power prior to this deal.

Much like other Silicon Valley giants, Apple is serious about cutting its reliance on non-renewable energy sources — and this week, it took a major step on this front.

The Cupertino company has invested in four Chinese companies owned by Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment, a subsidiary of Goldwind, according to a Chinese regulatory filing.

Goldwind is China’s largest wind-turbine manufacturer, having supplied 12.5 percent of all wind turbine installations in the country last year.

Much of Apple’s products are manufactured in China. In September, Apple had committed to use more renewable energy at its third-party suppliers.

This is Apple’s largest clean energy effort to date, Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple, told state-run newspaper China Daily. This is also the company's first-of-its kind wind energy investment, although the company has been purchasing wind energy for its offices and other facilities in California, among other states, according to Apple's 2016 Environmental Responsibility Report.

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The investments in wind turbines will collectively yield 285MW of clean energy, and the power generated will be directed towards Apple’s supply chain manufacturers, the company was quoted as saying.

The subsidiaries are based in northwest of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Apple now assumes 30 percent of equity in these four subsidiaries.

The announcement helps fulfill Apple’s intention of reducing its carbon footprint, something that nearly every Silicon Valley company has been working on. Specifically, Apple has been looking to make its product chain cleaner after making gains with its stores and offices. Many of its factories, including Foxconn's massive iPhone plants, are located in China.

Google, for instance, announced this week that by next year all of its energy needs will be met by renewable sources.

Apple isn’t all the way there yet, but the company has been increasingly putting efforts on this front. Last year, the company had announced a joint venture with California-based SunPower to build two solar projects.

The company's new campus is also a proof of that. Called the Campus 2, the main building has solar panels on the roof of the main building. Roughly 80 percent of the campus will be green space and include several varieties of fruit trees.