Apple Starts China Fund (Updates with IEA Figs on Such Start-Ups)

US technology giant Apple said July 12 that it and ten other companies are to invest nearly $300mn over the next four years in a new China Clean Energy Fund that will invest in and develop up to 1,000 MW of renewable power projects.

This follows Apple’s announcement earlier this year that its global facilities are now powered by 100% clean energy. Together with its manufacturing suppliers, it expects to generate more than 4 gigawatts of new clean energy worldwide by 2020 — or one-third of Apple’s current power demand footprint.

The ten co-investors in the China Clean Energy Fund are: Catcher Technology, Compal Electronics, Corning Incorporated, Golden Arrow, Jabil, Luxshare-ICT, Pegatron, Solvay, Sunway Communication and Wistron. The fund will be managed through a third party, DWS Group, which specialises in sustainable investments.

Belgian chemicals group Solvay CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu was recently appointed non-executive chairman of French utility giant Engie, which is gradually decarbonising its much larger energy portfolio.

Update July 17 2018: The International Energy Agency's World Energy Investment 2018 study reported that "corporate investments in new energy technology companies are growing strongly, reaching their highest ever level of just over $6bn in 2017", up from $3.7bn in 2016. The study described these as "strategic investments by companies to get a stake in potentially key new technology areas."

Included in that, the oil & gas sector stepped up its investment in such new energy tech companies to $311mn in 2017, from $238mn in 2016, while the utility sector roughly doubled its funding to $744mn from $355mn. 

But the study's striking finding was that the vast majority of the growth is coming from IT and communication companies (the ICT sector), mostly investing in electric vehicle start-ups and digital solutions for smart grids and efficiency. ICT funding more than doubled to $3.88bn last year, from $1.78bn in 2016.