# "Smart" Cities



## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Let's talk about the future of the world's cities..."Smart cities". These cities are very energy efficient, use "smart grids" and the goal is they will get alot of their power from renewable energy. They will use energy smartly and store unused energy with lithium ion batteries and ideally all the cars will be electric.

I will post some news about it from Japan but please show your own countries or other countries projects since I know other places are doing it to


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

*Panasonic Announces Sustainable Smart Town Project*
http://news.panasonic.net/archives/2011/0526_5407.html

Here is a video






*What is Fujisawa SST?*

Panasonic and Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture, about 50 km west of Tokyo, announced on November 17, 2010 that it had reached an agreement to build a smart town on the vacant lot of Panasonic's former factory site. Aiming to open the new "eco-town" in the fiscal year ending in March 2014, the business partnership of the nine partner companies and one city will collaborate to build an innovative smart town deploying services and energy systems based on Panasonic's Eco Ideas for green lifestyles. All partners will work closely together throughout every phase of the project, from the master planning stage to actual operation of the town that will have about 1,000 households.










Panasonic will apply its "comprehensive solutions for the entire house, entire building and entire town" to Fujisawa SST, combining its energy saving technologies in energy creation, storage and management with a safe and secure environment. Specifically, the company plans to preinstall its solar power generation systems and household storage battery systems across the town, including homes, various facilities and public zones, which would be the first of its kind in the world. Panasonic intends to replicate Fujisawa SST as a business model in other parts of Japan and overseas.


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Here is another project happening right now in Yokohama

*Japan creating 'smart city' of the future*

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/11/BUFK1FPLCU.DTL&type=green

Chiba, Japan -- There were gadgets and robots galore at Japan's premier electronics show last week. But one of the biggest attractions wasn't anything you could touch - an energy-efficient city of the future.

For the first time, the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, better known as CEATAC, devoted one area of the show floor to selling a vision of urban life in 2020 and beyond.

*'Smart city'*

The Japanese version of the "smart city" exists in a post-fossil fuel world. Alternative sources like the sun, wind and nuclear power are harnessed in mass quantities. That power is then distributed to buildings, homes and electric cars connected to each other through smart grids, which monitor energy use throughout the network to maximize efficiency.

The goal is to drastically cut carbon emissions, which many scientists believe cause global warming - ideally to zero. The bigger dream is for the smart city to become Japan's next big export, fueling new growth and ambition at a time when the country finds itself in an economic rut and eclipsed by China as the world's second-biggest economy behind the United States.

The city of Yokohama, just southwest of Tokyo, is the site of a social and infrastructure experiment to create a smart city for the rest of the world to emulate. Begun this year, the Yokohama Smart City Project is a five-year pilot program with a consortium of seven Japanese companies - Nissan Motor Co., Panasonic Corp., Toshiba Corp., Tokyo Electric Power Co., Tokyo Gas Co., Accenture's Japan unit and Meidensha Corp.

"We want to build a social model to take overseas," said Masato Nobutoki, the executive director of Yokohama's Climate Change Policy Headquarters, during a keynote event at CEATAC. "Yokohama is a place where foreign cultures entered Japan 150 years ago and then spread to the rest of the country."

Now, he said, it's where the best of Japan is converging, preparing for expansion to the wider world.

*Smart use of energy
*
*Called the Toyota Smart Center, it calculates the most efficient way of using energy, eliminating waste by shutting off gadgets when they aren't being used and taking advantage of the recharging benefits of hybrids*, which recharge as they run. If it's all a little hard to imagine, Nissan was offering a peek into the future at CEATAC. The centerpiece of the automaker's pavilion was a 3-D theater with a 275-inch screen giving viewers a virtual-reality drive through Yokohama in the near future. The virtual city tour will be replicated for leaders from around Asia when they gather in Yokohama next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.

"We need to turn talk into reality," said Minoru Shinohara, senior vice president for technology development at Nissan, which will begin selling its Leaf electric car in December.


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Here is a project in Hawaii, USA

*US, Japanese Companies Collaborate on Landmark Hawaiian Smart Grid*
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22427
A group of US and Japanese companies are collaborating on a landmark smart grid project on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Cyber Defense Institute, Inc., JFE Engineering Corporation, Sharp Corporation (6753.T), Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd., and Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. have been selected as contractors for the demonstration project.

On the island of Maui, 15% of the electricity supply is already generated by renewable energy, and there are plans to increase the percentage. The goals of the project are to verify cutting-edge technologies in a smart grid, contribute to smart grid standards, and implement a low-carbon social infrastructure system that efficiently uses renewable energy on a remote island where electricity costs are relatively high.

The six participating companies will build and test a system that includes: power distribution control, demand side load control, control-ICT platform, electric vehicles (EVs) operation and charging control, multiple type of rapid chargers, and information and telecommunications technologies.

Part of the demonstration plan calls for using EVs as a stability function for the grid--absorbing fluctuations in power frequency when large volumes of renewable energy are added to the grid due to weather variability.

The project will be spearheaded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Together, the companies will conduct a feasibility study expected to be completed by the middle of September 2011. Based on the results of the study, the project is expected to be implemented by the end of March 2015.

The Project is supported by NEDO, in cooperation with the State of Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., the University of Hawaii, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.


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## quashlo (Jun 14, 2008)

This reminds me of recent news:
*Landis+Gyr+Toshiba: First Truly Global Smart Grid Company?*
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/idUS315377614920110523

And a bit older:
*Hitachi to join eco-city project in Dalian*
http://www.asiacleantechgateway.com/2010/10/hitachi-to-join-eco-city-project-in-dalian/

Overall, Japan seems to be doing a lot of "eco-city" (I think these "smart cities" we can call a subset of "eco-cities") type of stuff for developing countries, including India:
http://inhabitat.com/india-to-build-24-green-cities-in-delhi-mumbai-industrial-corridor/dmic/


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Do you think that this will catch on worldwide and the future will look like this?


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## SamuraiBlue (Apr 2, 2010)

This kind of system will be needed especially when centralized electric power plant generation lose 60% through transferring power to cities by power plants but solar power alone would not be enough at present technological level.
A blend of power plants and decentralized power generation system that feeds back power into the grid when there is surplus would be the ideal system to maintain an economical as well as ecological society.


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## quashlo (Jun 14, 2008)

NihonKitty said:


> Do you think that this will catch on worldwide and the future will look like this?


Seems only natural. Even where I live, people are already being encouraged to install their own solar panels on their homes through government subsidies, and the power generated is fed back into the grid, offsetting any use by the residents.


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## dumbfword (Apr 27, 2010)

Abu Dhabi is going full time. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masdar_City


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## Positronn (Jan 25, 2008)

SamuraiBlue said:


> This kind of system will be needed especially when centralized electric power plant generation lose 60% through transferring power to cities by power plants but solar power alone would not be enough at present technological level.
> A blend of power plants and decentralized power generation system that feeds back power into the grid when there is surplus would be the ideal system to maintain an economical as well as ecological society.


60%? Where is this number from? In USA, for example, average power losses were 6.5% in 2007. 

This project in Tokyo seems amazing. I wonder how much energy these houses will produce with all these solar panels.


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## SamuraiBlue (Apr 2, 2010)

Positronn said:


> 60%? Where is this number from? In USA, for example, average power losses were 6.5% in 2007.
> 
> This project in Tokyo seems amazing. I wonder how much energy these houses will produce with all these solar panels.


From Tokyo Electric and I believe the 6.5% is a mistake since the loss in power lines are far greater than people realize since it's one big resistor. Changing voltage also loses power since they are only 86% in efficiency.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

All of Germany will be "smart" (stupid term between) country if the fundamentalist green zeitgeist continues. In a first step all nuclear power plants will be replaced with renewable energy sources till 2021. Massive offshore windparks are already uc or planed.

northsea:









green - online
yellow - approved
red - to be approved

Furthermore, nationwide passive house (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house) program (self regualting, almost no heating, cooling required), solar power subsidize, electric car program etc. With possible green Bundeskanzler in a few years, Germany will be transformed into green utopia.

typical passivehouses: with or without solar panels


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Very nice in Germany


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

After the Tsunami destroyed many cities there is some news about rebuilding the cities "green".

*Residents in tsunami-ravaged village eye new town with power from green energy*
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110601p2a00m0na011000c.html


> KESENNUMA, Miyagi -- Residents of this small farming village are planning to move to high ground and build a new town powered by green energy, as many of their homes were washed away by the March 11 tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake.
> 
> Local residents -- about 520 households -- in the Koizumi District of Motoyoshi, Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture, decided to launch a "group relocation council" on June 5 to discuss their plans to move and live in nearby upland. They plan to ask experts to develop a system through which they can build a new town which is self-sufficient in its electricity generated from green energy such as solar power. They also plan to urge the central government to help with their plans to build a new town, rather than to return to where they were prior to the earthquake, and invite businesses to start their operations there.


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## atmada (Jan 9, 2008)

Is there any standard or measurement for this? here (In my country) people seem easily claim their city as a "smart city".


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## ukiyo (Aug 5, 2008)

Read post 1


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## Crash_N (May 19, 2011)

Well I think I know one country that will never get "smart" in the solar power aspect: the UK.


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## Sweet Zombie Jesus (Sep 11, 2008)

Crash_N said:


> Well I think I know one country that will never get "smart" in the solar power aspect: the UK.


It's okay, we've got more than enough tidal/wave energy in western Scotland to make up for it 












Pious Fraud said:


> *World’s first tidal array approved for Islay*​
> An underwater tide farm is to be built in the Sound of Islay off the west coast of Scotland, the first of its kind in the world, after Scottish Power Renewables were granted planning permission.
> 
> It will allow the installation of 10 turbines capable of harnessing the powerful tidal flows in the area to deliver 10 megawatts of energy, sufficient to power 5,000 homes.
> ...


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## japanese001 (Mar 17, 2007)

Nuclear power is dangerous.

Ota city


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## Wunderknabe (Jun 29, 2010)

NihonKitty said:


> Let's talk about the future of the world's cities..."Smart cities". These cities are very energy efficient, use "smart grids" and the goal is they will get alot of their power from renewable energy. They will use energy smartly and store unused energy with lithium ion batteries and ideally all the cars will be electric.


Well, a even smarter addition is to reduce the car-orientated design of our cities and the number of the cars itself. 

Berlin already has reduced its number of cars to ~350 cars per 1000 people
and will reduce it even further by building bicycle-lanes, extend public transport...and reduce parking places.

So few people in Berlin have a car because in most cases you just dont need one to get to work or anywhere.


Putting some solar panels on the roofs is by the way in many cases a contraproductive way, because the money your have to invest does not equal the amount of money via the energy they produce. Solarcells lose their efficiency time by time and can only be used
a couple of decades before they have to be renewed.

So far the smartest way to save energy is to improve thermal insulation and other passive actions to reduce the amount of energy being used.

And the very easiest way would be to double the price of gas for americans and forcing them to use smaller cars with less consumption


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