Apple Inc. (AAPL): Wind Energy Innovator?

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company through and through, so that’s why it’s intriguing when we see news related to Cupertino’s involvement in the energy business.

First reported by Apple Insider, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application titled “On-Demand Generation of Electricity From Stored Wind Energy” earlier today, which was filed by Apple in June of last year.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

The application, which can be seen here, details a rather unique method to generate electricity:

“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.”

Modern-day wind turbines are reliant on a consistent level of wind to generate power, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s system transfers this energy into heat, storing it in a fluid, which could be “mercury, ethanol or an inert gas” according to Apple Insider.

The implications that Apple’s “on-demand generation” system will have on the wind power industry are unknown at this point, as it’s quite possible that the company is considering using the technology just to power its own property and equipment.

How do we know that this may be the case?

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