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Experimental "Smart Town" To Be Built In Japan
StormDriver writes "Basically, Fujisawa SST is envisioned as a bottom-up approach to energy efficiency — a green village built from scratch with modern green technologies rather than less-efficient older tech. Panasonic wants to use it as a template for other larger communities in Japan and elsewhere. If all goes as planned, Fujisawa SST will start receiving residents in March of 2014 and finish filling up its houses by 2018."
How about local water treatment of waste water. Recycle it through a small hydro plant and then water the lawns.
How about organic waste being used to feed a methane generator.
How about a local grid that can recharge electric vehicles with excess power.
There are a great number of small efficiencies that can be created at the community/neighborhood level which are not feasible either for individual homes or for full cities.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I walk to work, takes 10 minutes. And I do 50%+ of my shopping on the way home.
Public transit is wonderful, don't get me wrong. But it's no substitute for mixed zone, high-density neighborhoods.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Every time I read about one of these planned cities, I'm reminded of Walt Disney's original concept for the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow EPCOT - not the theme park it became after he died. The original idea was damn visionary - take a look at the Wikipedia article, or here. The idea was a community where people lived and worked - I don't know what the word is - synergistically? Certainly a decent first crack at a practical corporate utopia. It makes me really angry that it became a 'ride' instead.
Yup... and as a result it will probably be less energy efficient than existing Japanese towns.
In reality this looks more like a way to sell Panasonic "green" products...
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Why wouldn't it? They are doing a "smart home" experiment here in the Netherlands, with homeowners, appliance manufacturers, energy companies, and the municipality. In this case smart does mean green. For example: instead of just switching on the washing machine, you tell it: "I want this clean by 5". The washing machine tells the home automation system: "I'll need about 2kW for 45 minutes, some time before 5". The home will then negotiate with the grid and tell the washing machine when it can start. It's a bit too early to be sure, but apparently considerable savings can be made this way, especially when the grid has a substantial solar/wind component. It's not about using less energy, but about using the cleanest/cheapest energy when it's available.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...