Take a quick look around you. Right now, you are probably surrounded by a rich tapestry of technologies working hard to improve the way you live and work. Some are obvious, some are hidden. You are looking at one right now. Tangible tech like computers and mobile phones are easy to identify, but they represent only a small fraction of the gadgets, gizmos, systems and services making an impact on modern, smarter living.
ABB
What do I mean by smarter living? Well, technology can certainly make our lives easier and more comfortable. To me, smarter goes beyond that. Smarter also means being more self-aware, responsible, and responsive towards the environment. Tech can not only help us improve our standards of living, but it can also make us better custodians of our planet.
In our urbanizing world, one of the biggest opportunities we have to limit our impact on the environment is in the design and management of cities, which account for 65% of global energy demand and are responsible for 75% of global CO2 emissions. With advanced data analytics, we are now able to take a forensic look at the make-up of our cities, identify weaknesses and imperfections, and determine the best remedies.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), industry accounts for slightly less than one half of total CO2 emissions, buildings and transport for one quarter each, including emissions from electricity power generation allocated to these final sectors. The buildings sector uses nearly one half of the electricity that is consumed globally, industry nearly the other half.
Our goal should be to create cities that are capable are meeting our needs and providing high standards of living, while having a neutral or ideally even a positive impact on the environment.
The key to sustainability is to do more with less. We need to meet the growing demand for energy and raw materials without increasing the burden we place on our planet’s resources, and without increasing emissions and pollution. In fact, we need to go further because today, we need 1.7 Earths to support current demands on natural resources. That is clearly not sustainable.
In my team, in ABB’s Electrification business, we are focused on disruptive technologies like electric mobility. As engineers and scientists, our goal and passion is to reduce the number of carbon-emitting vehicles on our roads. We do this by developing new technologies, like high-powered electric fast chargers for cars and buses, that are ideally suited for the urban environment. Our most advanced fast chargers can provide enough charge for 100 kilometers (62 miles) of range in just four minutes. Our “opportunity charging” systems for electric buses provide short bursts of power at selected stops or terminuses, meaning buses can operate all day without running out of power.
E-mobility is an integral part of a ‘smart’ habitat because the infrastructure and vehicles are all connected, meaning power loads can be managed according to demand. The same applies to ‘smart’ buildings, for which we have developed a cost-efficient, cloud computing-based energy monitoring and management system to help cut waste and improve the energy efficiency of buildings and small industrial sites.
There are many ways to reduce the environmental impact of a building, for instance, by optimizing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to be more energy efficient. But to achieve a sustained improvement, and ultimately a carbon-neutral building, it is necessary to analyze the particular demands that are placed on buildings and infrastructure.
Hotels, for example, consume large amounts of energy because they operate around the clock with, for example, constant hot water. This was the case with the InterContinental Hotel in Madrid, which underwent a detailed energy survey. Based on these findings, the pumping systems for HVAC and water were equipped with variable speed drives. As a result of this, behind the scenes improvement, the hotel now saves enough energy per year to boil two million kettles of water.
The system my team has developed for building energy monitoring could help to scale energy consumption analysis to cover most buildings, including those of a smaller size and thus, make a first step in eliminating sources of energy waste in a cost-efficient manner.
There are many hidden levers that can make infrastructure, like buildings and transportation systems, smarter. Like brush strokes layered to create a painting, many elements contribute to the creation of a ‘smart city’. And like paintings they can look different. What is certain, though, is that the color palette used to create the cityscapes of future must become greener.
ABB Electrification has developed an online interactive landscape breaking down the collective technical elements of smart buildings, e-mobility, energy management and data centers, all of which can contribute to the design of a comprehensive ‘smart city’. You can visit the online tool here.
