iOS 16's Clean Energy Charging arriving later in 2022

A future update to iOS 16 will make the iPhone even more environmentally friendly, with Clean Energy Charging prioritizing recharging at times when cleaner energy sources are available.

Apple has worked hard to reduce the carbon footprint of the company as a whole, and it's making its products work in a more environmentally-minded way. In an upcoming update due later in 2022, Apple will add a feature to iOS 16 called Clean Energy Charging.

According to Apple, Clean Energy Charging will try to cut down the carbon footprint of the iPhone created by recharging. To accomplish this, the feature will optimize the timing of charges for "when the grid is using cleaner energy sources."

The change is seemingly an expansion of the idea of the Optimized Battery Charging functionality that arrived in iOS 13. That feature protected the battery of the iPhone from prolonged charging and leaving the battery fully charged for long periods, by managing charging patterns.

Optimized Battery Charging would charge the iPhone to 80%, if it believes it will be left on charge for a long time, such as overnight. Before it expects to be picked up and used, the feature would restart charging so that it will reach 100% charge at the right moment.

It is unclear exactly how iOS would be able to know when "cleaner energy sources" are being used, but it is likely checking in with Apple's servers to determine the grid's status. It will also be limited only to the United States, which suggests there is some data sourcing at play.

Apple doesn't state when Clean Energy Charging will arrive in iOS, except it will be "later this year." It will be accompanied by other features, including iCloud Shared Photo Library, Live Activities, and Matter support for Homekit.

12 Comments

sdw2001 17459 comments · 23 Years

About 2 years ago

Ridiculous. Corporate virtue signaling at its finest.

acejax805 109 comments · 10 Years

This is a California meme feature right?

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

sdw2001 said:

Ridiculous. Corporate virtue signaling at its finest.

100s of millions of iPhones do add up

mattinoz 2473 comments · 9 Years

Needs an API so we can feed local power spot pricing to work off as well as our own power supply over-generation.
Should also be able to set our own rules around the 80/20 split of early and late charge.
I know I'm putting my phone on charge after a certain time it will be there until my alarm goes off it can get up to 20% just in case then wait till later for the 80%

tht 5594 comments · 23 Years

AppleInsider said:

It is unclear exactly how iOS would be able to know when "cleaner energy sources" are being used, but it is likely checking in with Apple's servers to determine the grid's status. It will also be limited only to the United States, which suggests there is some data sourcing at play.

Apple just asks the grid operator for their realtime power mix and their future power prediction, by type. The rest is having the phone calling their server for optimal charging times. The data is public and you can check it yourself, of if you are good at HTML parsing, you can continuously crawl for the data if wanted.

The grid operator definitely knows what power source is energizing the grid on an hour by hour basis, at least, if not minute by minute basis. If you live in Texas ERCOT, the best time to charge is from 2 am to 6 am or so, when wind power is about 20% to 50% of grid, on average and depending on time of year. In a few years, it's going to be something like 30% to 70% wind at those hours, with solar+wind creeping towards 20% to 50% during the day.