Do you own an iPhone, iPad, or Macbook? Well, millions of people around the world are owners of these Apple products. Because of that, when you think of Apple the company, instantly it is associated with cool new gadgets. Apple has decided to change their game up a bit and invest money, time, and intelligence into developing a way to store electricity generated from wind energy. In 2011, Apple filed with the United States for a patent design entitled “On-Demand Generation of Electricity from Stored Wind Energy.” The patent design that Apple has described to the United States is as follows:

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that generates electricity. During operation, the system uses a set of rotating blades to convert rotational energy from a wind turbine into heat in a low-heat-capacity fluid. Next, the system selectively transfers the heat from the low-heat-capacity fluid to a working fluid. Finally, the system uses the transferred heat in the working fluid to generate electricity.”

One of the biggest issues wind energy faces is that wind blows strongest at different times of the day, which might not be when energy is most needed. Because of that, Apple has decided to invest in this area of renewable energy with hopes to create a workable storage solution so wind energy can become the energy source the world needs.

Source: Treehugger Apple’s New Wind Tech Design Generates and Stores Heat

Wired: Exclusive Pics: Apple Breaks Grounds at Mystery Data Center

Photo Credit: Wired

In North Carolina, Apple is building a 20,000-square-foot massive tactical data center northwest of their main data center. From aerial photos taken by Wired’s iSpy Plane, it is clear that Apple is building a 4.8 MW array of Bloom Energy fuel cells working to convert biogas into electricity as well as a 100-acre solar farm.

InsideClimate News: Brooklyn’s Self-Powered Solar Building: A Game-Changer for Green Construction?

Photo Credit: Delta Complex- Maria Gallucci, InsideClimate News

A Brooklyn triangular-shaped building defies the typical problems of getting solar on this type of building and will become one of the city’s greenest structures. Some of the green technologies this building has are: sun-deflecting, recycled glass red bricks; 70 solar panels lying flat on building’s sides; over a dozen solar panels hanging like awnings and above the roof on a metal rack. All the energy generated will result in 25% more energy than is needed by this building therefore the electricity will be sold to local fossil-fuel power grids.

TGDaily: Inspiration House is a Zero-Waste Building

All the way from Netherlands, a building called the Bosch Siemends Hausgerate (B/S/H) Inspiration House has some pretty astounding green technology and inspires a cradle-to-cradle design. This principle is all about the positive effect we can have on ecosystems by being waste free in construction by recycling or returning the materials to nature.