How To Make Your iPhone Charge On Clean Energy!

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What Is Clean Energy Charging?

Apple has a new partnership with the CoolClimate Network at the University of California–Berkeley, to charge iPhones in a greener way by creating a new feature — ‘clean energy charging’. If you’re in the United States and have your phone updated to iOS 16, you can now set your phone to charge on clean, green energy as much as possible.

What does this do exactly? If you open in your settings “Battery Health & Charging” and turn on “Clean Energy Charging,” and you connect your iPhone to a charger, Apple gets a forecast of the carbon emissions in your local energy grid and uses it to charge your iPhone during times when relatively low-carbon-emission electricity is being produced (whether that be solar energy, wind energy, or nuclear energy).

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Enjoy Greener Charging, Without Being Connected To A Green Energy Source

With this new feature, even if you don’t have solar panels on your roof or a subscription to 100% clean electricity, you can charge your phone in a greener way by turning on one little feature on your iPhone!

Apple explains that this new feature works together with ’Optimised Battery Charging’ to learn your charging habits. Clean Energy Charging engages only where you spend the most time and regularly charge your iPhone for long periods of time, such as your home and place of work.

However, the feature doesn't engage if your charging habits are variable or you're in a new location, such as when you travel. So this means some location settings must be turned on for Clean Energy Charging to activate.

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This Feature May Also Raise Awareness Around How The Energy Grid Works & Saving Resources

"Small adjustments add up over time. What Apple is doing is making it easier for iPhone users to become more aware of their role in reducing carbon emissions," says Sarah Jameson of Green Building Elements.

"It serves as a reminder of the importance of reducing carbon emissions and that even the most mundane activities, such as charging your phone when power grids are less constrained and more clean energy capacity is available, are significant in the grand scheme of things."

At the moment, this feature is available for iPhones and in the US only, but if it works out, then there's no reason not to expect this to roll out in more countries and to other Apple devices! In this case, the impact could be huge.