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By Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is embracing renewable energy with an $848 million commitment to obtain electricity from a solar farm that’s big enough to power its offices in California, along with 52 retail stores and a data center.

The company that revolutionized how people use computers and mobile phones is stepping up efforts to make the entire business more environmentally friendly. Apple is teaming up with First Solar Inc. to secure solar-generated electricity for 25 years, a deal that the energy company described as the largest agreement ever for a single commercial end user.

Apple joins Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other companies with intensive data operations that are seeking to get more power from renewable sources. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, has made environmental responsibility a key element of his management of the Cupertino-based company, with 100 percent of its data centers running on renewable energy.

“We’re doing this because it’s right to do, but you may also be interested to know that it’s good financially to do it,” Cook said Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco. “We expect to have a very significant savings because we have a fixed price for the renewable energy -- so we’re thrilled to continue on this course of doing things that really leave the world better than we founded.”

The iPhone maker will receive power from 130 megawatts of First Solar’s California Flats Solar Project in Monterey County, California, First Solar said in a statement. The news triggered a jump in First Solar shares, which rose 2 percent in extended trading, adding to a 4.8 percent gain to $48.54 at the close in New York.

Renewable Energy

Apple’s investment is also a validation of solar power at a time when renewable energy resources are becoming a greater part of the nation’s electricity mix amid more stringent federal environmental rules.

While Apple’s commitment is one of the biggest deals to procure solar power from a single source, Google has funded more than 15 alternative-energy projects since 2010 as part of a more than $1.4 billion investment in clean power production.

Construction on First Solar’s 2,900-acre (12-square- kilometer) California Flats Solar Project, which will provide power for Apple, will begin in the middle of this year and be completed by the end of 2016. Additional output of about 150 megawatts from the solar farm will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Solar Power

First Solar is the world’s largest developer of photovoltaic power plants, the biggest of which use millions of its cadmium-telluride thin-film panels spread over thousands of acres. Most conventional solar panels are made with polysilicon. First Solar typically builds and operates the power plants and sells stakes to independent power producers such as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and NRG Energy Inc. The output from the plants usually is sold to utilities under long-term contracts.

This is First Solar’s first contract to sell power from one of its projects directly to a large consumer. Its two largest solar plants, also located in California, each produce 550 megawatts.

Some of the power from California Flats will also be used for Apple’s new headquarters currently being built in Cupertino. The spaceship-like circular building will also have its own solar panels.

“We know at Apple that climate change is real and our view is that the time for talk is past, and the time for action is now and we’ve shown that with what we’ve done,” Cook said.