Making a city "smarter" starts with networked hardware, says IBM. That is, fire trucks, waste water lines, and buildings.
The city of Chesapeake, Va., has contracted with IBM to modernize the city's public works and utilities infrastructure, touching everything from its water system to its fire department. The deal is part of IBM's "smarter city" campaign of wooing municipalities that are investing in their infrastructure.
Rather than simply rewire power lines or rebuild broken bridges, cities should invest in technologies to improve efficiency and safety, said Bill Sawyer, IBM's vice president of IBM Maximo Operations.
In practice, that typically means bringing physical assets--trucks, buildings, utility lines, and the like--under control of a consolidated software system, Sawyer explained. By putting a networked sensor onto a fire truck, for example, the maintenance department can get data on its condition and save money on its maintenance schedule.
Now under (software) management: heavy equipment for clearing debris after storms.
(Credit: IBM )Data is collected from various end points and consolidated in the Maximo asset management application, which IBM bought in 2006 and has integrated with its Tivoli IT management system.
"There's an abundance of stimulus money, not only in the U.S. but all over the world," Sawyer said. "Rather than just rebuilding that bridge [in Minnesota that collapsed in 2007], you can embed sensors in the bridge to improve the ability to do preventive maintenance."
In one part of the project, Chesapeake's public utilities plan to put sensors and water meters at different points of the distribution networks, including water treatment plants and at end customers. By tracking usage of water, the city hopes better conserve water and lower its spending.
In the next phase of the project, the city plans to equip a number of its assets, such as water lines, with GPS equipment. That will allow city departments get a consolidated visual view of where the city's resources.
Simply knowing where physical assets are located allows city departments to run more efficiently and do more sophisticated applications. So when a town's public works department dispatches somebody for street repair, it can decide to do maintenance on the water lines as well, Sawyer said.
For citizens, the modernized infrastructure will help ensure consistent services and reduce waste, he said.
Konarka's solar panel on a Neuber mailbag.
(Credit: Neuber)Konarka Technologies announced this week its Power Plastic flexible solar panels are going to be being used in carrier bags and possibly shade structures in the Middle East and Africa.
The company made a deal to supply its solar panels to German-based carrier manufacturer Neuber for bags that can double as chargers for small electronics like cell phones, digital cameras, and media players. Neuber is currently selling the so-called Energy Sun Bags at around 118 euros ($175) on the Neuber Web site.
Konarka's flexible solar panels in Neuber's range of mailbags are not the first instance of backpacks going solar, but they certainly are one of the first we've noticed in the growing trend in recent months of reasonably-priced solar bags coming on to the consumer market.
While not yet at the product stage, Konarka also announced this week it's partnering with Enviromena Power Systems, a solar project developer in the Middle East and North Africa whose clients include Abu Dhabi's planned green community Masdar City.
The plan is to integrate Konarka's flexible solar panels into shade structures.
Shade structures, tents, and awnings are already used ubiquitously for shade. It makes sense to find a double use for them as a solar panels to provide a recharge for cell phones or iPods.
Abu Dhabi's planned green community, Masdar City, will be testing General Electric's smart appliances in a handful of residences and coordinating them with its power grid, GE said Monday.
GE's Consumer & Industrial division announced in October 2008 that it was developing home appliances that could ease the strain on electrical grids by coordinating with a grid's off-peak hours to perform flexible functions.
A refrigerator equipped with a "smart" meter, for example, communicates with the local power utility. That refrigerator then waits to run its automatic defrost cycle until it has received a signal from the electrical grid that it's an off-peak period.
A smart meter on a refrigerator at GE's labs.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)Masdar City is under construction in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It aims to be the first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city. It's also home to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The post-graduate research center, a collaborator with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began offering courses and research facilities in alternative energy and sustainable technology for graduate students in September.
The two-year pilot project with GE appliances will include refrigerators, stoves, and European-style washer/dryer machines that run on 220volt/50HZ platforms and will be installed in 10 residences.
The installation, to be completed in early 2010, will include a communication system between the appliances and Masdar City's utility grid that will allow the appliances to transmit real-time data and run nonessential functions during off-peak usage hours. Since Masdar City is not scheduled to be fully inhabited until 2013, the city's grid will simulate peak usage strains in order to test the system.
Previously, GE began testing its smart appliances in select homes in Louisville, Ky., in conjunction with the Louisville Gas and Electric Company.
PNC's green wall in downtown Pittsburgh.
(Credit: PNC)On Tuesday PNC Financial Services Group unveiled what it claims to be the "largest green wall in North America."
Certainly, the wall is taller and "greener" than Fenway Park's famous 37-foot-high Green Monster in Boston.
The PNC wall is a living, breathing wall of plants spanning 2,380 square feet on the south side of the bank's Pittsburgh headquarters, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street. The wall is made up of 602 two-foot square panels. Each panel contains 24 evergreen plants.
"The vertical garden, similar to a green roof, will help to cool the 30-story building. Preliminary studies show the south-facing living wall will be 25 percent cooler behind the wall than ambient temperatures," PNC said in a statement.
Currently, the wall is shades of green with darker green plants placed to create the bank's logo, but this spring some of the evergreen plants will bloom creating more color and changing the design.
The wall, similar in functionality to a green roof, was designed by Kari Katzander of Mingo Design, and built by Green Living Technologies and Cenkner Engineering Associates.
A bank chain in California will combine PV and EV--that is, an electric-vehicle charging station equipped with solar-photovoltaic panels.
Solar installer SolarCity and Rabobank on Tuesday unveiled the charge point at a bank branch in Santa Maria, Calif.
An electric-car charging point fed by solar panels.
(Credit: SolarCity)The bank, which plans to build a network of four charging stations from Los Angeles to San Francisco, is considering putting solar panels on the buildings, according to Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, which installs and provides financing for solar panels. The company owns the panels at the Santa Maria location and sells the electricity they generate to the bank.
Because charge times could be an hour or two, the charge point locations were chosen with other retail outlets and restaurants nearby. The bank doesn't plan to charge customers to access the charge points.
The site at Santa Maria has a solar array able to generate 30,000 watts and a net meter that runs backward when the panels produce more electricity than the bank is consuming. An array that large could theoretically charge roughly 2 thousand cars a year, Rive calculated.
The limited range of battery-electric, or all-electric, vehicles is a serious barrier to adoption, which has led some states and communities to invest in charging infrastructure. The Rabobank charge spots were funded by California Air Resource Board, a SolarCity representative said.
SolarCity last week announced that it bought two Los Angeles companies that operate solar-powered charging stations, which is a new division in the company. Rive said the company envisions installing solar panels and fast-charging equipment in homes of people who are seeking a so-called carbon-free lifestyle.
"These bank branches are what I call enabler locations because they allow EV drivers to take longer trips and thereby use the EV as their primary car," Tom Dowling, infrastructure manager for electric-vehicle charging at the Electric Auto Association, said in a release. "Solar-powered charging stations mean true zero-emission driving, from well to wheels."
It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your trash is? A new project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hopes to find out.
A team of MIT researchers announced on Wednesday a project called Trash Track, designed to monitor trash from start to finish. The team will electronically tag different pieces of waste to trace their voyage through the disposal systems of New York City and Seattle.
By examining the patterns and costs of waste disposal, MIT hopes to educate people about the impact of garbage on the environment and make them aware of what they throw out.
"Trash is one of today's most pressing issues--both directly and as a reflection of our attitudes and behaviors," says professor Carlo Ratti, head of the MIT Senseable City Lab. "Our project aims to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects, as well as to highlight potential inefficiencies in today's recycling and sanitation systems. The project could be considered the urban equivalent of nuclear medicine--when a tracer is injected and followed through the human body."
Volunteers in New York and Seattle will allow individual pieces of their trash to be tagged with wireless location markers, known as "trash tags." The tags will calculate the ongoing location of each piece of trash and report back to a central server, where the data can be analyzed and viewed in real time.
"Trash Track aims to make the removal chain more transparent," says the lab's associate director, Assaf Biderman. "We hope that the project will promote behavioral change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them."
Starting in September, the public will be able to see the results of the study online and at special exhibits at the Architectural League in New York City and the Seattle Public Library.
SolarCity said it has the funds to further finance its solar-panel leasing offering.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company on Wednesday said it has secured tax equity funding through U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, the second fund created with the U.S. Bancorp division.
First Solar panels installed by SolarCity in Berkeley Hills, Calif.
(Credit: SolarCity)SolarCity is one of a handful of companies that offer financing options for homeowners and businesses to install solar electric panels.
Rather than pay the large upfront cost of solar, consumers pay a monthly fee and can anticipate lower monthly electricity bills. In some cases, the solar installer owns the panels and the consumer leases the panels for 20 years.
SolarCity now offers its financing option in California, Oregon, and Arizona. With the fund, the company plans to hire another 100 employees over the next six months.
The solar industry overall has been hit hard by a dearth of tax equity funds to finance solar projects. Because corporate profits have dipped, fewer banks are able to create a fund based on tax credits, which is how renewable energy projects in the U.S. have traditionally been subsidized.
SolarCity said its two tax equity funds were the only ones created this year to finance residential solar.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels
(Credit: City of Seattle)The City of Seattle has partnered with Nissan North America to promote the development of an electric vehicle charging network in anticipation of Nissan's release of its highway-legal EV, Renault-Nissan Alliance and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced Tuesday.
Nissan's commercially sold EV will have a different look than its EV-02 prototype, but the same functionality. The Nissan EV is expected to have a range of 100 miles on a single charge and be able to be charged within four to eight hours via a 220-volt outlet. The City of Seattle is planning to work with its local utility to come up with a program for installing the outlets--already commonly used in homes for electric laundry dryers--in interested residents' garages. It will also work to develop electric charging stations throughout Seattle.
The announcement is just one in a list of many U.S. communities that have begun to develop electrical charging stations in anticipation of Nissan's commercial EV release in the U.S. in 2010.
Last week Renault-Nissan Alliance announced a program in Tennessee. In March and April, Nissan announced partnerships with local Arizona governments to development a corridor of electric charging stations that would encompass the 116-mile stretch between Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. as well as their surrounding areas.
That particular project includes a partnership with tech company Ecotality. Its CEO Jonathan Read has told CNET it will be building the Arizona stations to accommodate any EV that adheres to Society of Automotive Engineers standards for electric vehicles, not just Nissan's EV.
Nissan now has projects geared toward establishing electric charging stations in anticipation of its 2010 EV launch in the U.S. in Sonoma County and San Diego, Calif., Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., Oregon, and Tennessee.
But the Seattle announcement is unique because the power source for the electric charging stations will be from http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/light/Seattle City Light, the publically-owned utility who's claim to fame is that it's "net zero" for greenhouse gas emissions.
"From light rail to street cars to electric vehicles, we're reducing the impact of transportation on our climate. Electric-powered transportation is particularly attractive in a city with a carbon-neutral utility, generating clean electricity through hydropower," Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said in a statement.
First, a confession: I am not much of a car aficionado. I truly appreciate the beauty of sports and luxury cars of different vintages, but when it comes to buying, I think about practicality.
So when I received a media alert on Friday that GM was going to unveil a "revolutionary vehicle to help people move through crowded cities" and solve other urban driving ills, I got excited.
The actual news was a bit of a letdown. GM and Segway showed off a two-wheel prototype vehicle based on Segway's scooter platform that lets two people tool around the city at 35 miles an hour on electric power. GM touted the vehicle's OnStar wireless communications to let people communicate with each other and stay clear of other vehicles.
It's an interesting way to rethink urban transportation. But it doesn't strike me as something that will make a dent on GM's income statement anytime soon.
What I really was hoping for was a GM mini-car. Something that's electric so it reduces in-city pollution. Small so that it can fit into tight spaces and ease congestion. And cheap so people around the world could afford it. That would show some innovation around fuel efficiency and offer proof that GM is serious about weaning itself from selling SUVs and trucks as passenger cars.
In fairness, it's worth noting that electric vehicles are a challenge in urban settings because people typically don't have a garage to plug into. But perhaps the community support automakers are seeking for electric vehicles could take the shape of charging pedestals or municipal fleet purchases.
(Credit:
Martin LaMonica/CNET)
We've seen GM tout high-tech solutions before, arguing years ago that fuel cell vehicles were not too far away. GM certainly wasn't alone in that pursuit--which continues today--but hydrogen cars still need major technical breakthroughs to become practical.
The much-touted Chevy Volt, due by the end of next year, has a whiff of this high ambition as well. It's a "no compromise" car with both a battery and an internal combustion engine that will give people "hundreds of miles" of driving range, according to GM executives. An internal combustion engine acts as a battery generator for longer rides. The big battery will give drivers 40 miles on a charge but it takes up the middle of the back seat, making it a four-seater.
The company last week said that the Volt will have clever features like smart charging using its OnStar communication service that will let people schedule charging during off-peak times to potentially get cheaper rates. We can also expect the latest in car gadgetry like multiple displays and digital music services.
A high-volume seller?
Many people are excited by the Volt--the GM-Volt.com Web site, which was started by a Volt enthusiast with no affiliation with GM, has a "want list" of over 47,000 people.
By contrast, government auditors are lukewarm on the Volt platform, which GM plans to use with an Opel sedan in Europe. In its initial findings, the administration's task force said that the Volt was promising but "likely to be too expensive to be commercially viable in the short term."
General Motors hasn't said how much the Volt will cost but executives say that it's already working on a second-generation electric powertrain focused on cutting costs significantly.
Other automakers are placing some or all their bets on the all-electric route. Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Tesla Motors, and Detroit Electric are promising a driving range in the neighborhood of 100 miles or more per charge. In response to a poll I included in an article, over 80 percent of almost 700 readers said that a 100-mile range on batteries suits their needs for either a primary or second car.
Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk--who, admittedly, has a strong bias toward pure-electric vehicles--didn't have kind words for the range-extender concept of the Chevy Volt either.
A prototype of a Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility vehicle, unveiled on Tuesday.
(Credit: GM)In an interview with GM-Volt.com on Monday, he said that a range-extended electric vehicle is "neither fish nor fowl and ends up being worse (in our opinion) than either a gasoline or pure electric vehicle." Because of technicalities of battery types, the Volt's 40-mile battery pack is roughly half the size of a 200-mile battery pack for an all-electric vehicle, he said.
Certainly, gas-electric hybrids make sense. There are those like the Prius that run mainly on the gas engine and others like the Volt that run all the time in electric mode, augmented by the engine. Bright Automotive this month will unveil a plug-in electric that will get a 100 miles per gallon. Fisker Automotive's forthcoming plug-in electric luxury cars will have a range of 300 miles. Toyota and Ford have both said they expect gas-electric hybrids to be the dominant platform over all-electric vehicles in the years to come.
But for a revolution in city transportation? How about a cheap, small, low-polluting car, even one that's not electric? And why are only auto start-ups participating in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize contest to build a 100-mile-per-gallon car? If 100 miles per gallons is an achievable bar, then incumbent automakers need to learn how to do that profitably.
GM has some very good cars in its portfolio and I have a lot of respect for the people I've interacted with in the past several months writing about GM and electric vehicles.
But when it comes to product design choice, count me as a consumer who is wowed by innovation around fuel efficiency, reliability, and cost rather than the big concepts and bells and whistles. Sometimes high tech comes in a small and simple package.
A PUMA concept vehicle.
(Credit: GM)General Motors and Segway plan to take a two-wheel concept vehicle for a spin around New York City on Tuesday.
The prototype vehicle, called Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), is designed to ease congestion and pollution problems in cities. It is based on the Segway Personal Transporter but holds two people, instead of one, and lets them sit, instead of stand.
A PUMA runs on lithium ion batteries, can reach 35 miles per hour, and can travel up to 35 miles between charges.
It includes some high-tech touches, including GM's wireless OnStar communications technology that lets a passenger locate other drivers in a city.
The two-wheeler is meant to address the mounting problems of urban car transportation, according to the two companies that plan to unveil the vehicle at an auto show in New York.
GM is touting other features as well.
"Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them. Now, connect those vehicles in an Internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks," Larry Burns, GM's vice president of R&D and strategic planning, said in a statement.
GM is looking to drum up excitement for its vehicles as it undergoes a massive restructuring in an effort to become financially viable and more competitive with other automakers.
The Segway Personal Transporter, a two-wheel vehicle that allows people to stand and move around at slow speeds, was released with great fanfare several years ago, but it remains a niche form of transportation.
