Electric Vehicles
Smart Buildings Set For Big Smart City Integration Drive in 2019
January 10th, 2019“No Benefit to Basing Home Energy Storage Systems on Automotive Batteries” says Mercedes Benz
May 17th, 2018
A New Kind of Energy Consumption Needs a New Kind of Energy Provision
Solar panels glimmer from millions of rooftops around the world, providing power more efficiently and cheaply than ever before. Energy storage systems are becoming commonplace, feeding on excess solar power then releasing it when the sun goes down or when grid electricity rates are high. Sensors and communication technology throughout the grid allows for intelligent […]

Hitachi, Mitsubishi & ENGIE Join Forces to Develop Vehicle to Building & Grid Technology
As much as 75% of CO2 emissions produced today come from buildings and transport combined. So when a new technology innovation arises which promises to promote energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy within both sectors simultaneously, it is worth exploring. Electronics giant Hitachi, along with Mitsubishi Motors and energy firm ENGIE have come […]

Tesla to Build the World’s Biggest Virtual Power Plant
Elon Musk and Tesla are never out of the news for long, their regular media coverage usually takes the shape of a world’s first, biggest, or fastest. So it wasn’t a surprise, when late last week Tesla Energy announced their involvement in another mega-project – the biggest virtual power plant (VPP) in the world. “Supply […]

New Energy Performance Directive Aims to make EU’s Building Stock “Nearly Zero Emissions” by 2050
A new year, a new energy directive for buildings. Over the festive period a political agreement on new rules for improving the energy performance of buildings was reached between negotiators from the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. The new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) aims to renovate Europe’s entire building stock by […]

Japan Tests Virtual Power Plants with Potential Capacity on Unprecedented Scales
In the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the Japanese government embarked upon the largest deregulation of any electricity market worldwide. Through their restructuring they not only want to push away from nuclear energy, but also to promote renewable energy and help modernize the Japanese electric grid by introducing competitive services and flexible […]

New Vehicle-to-Grid Research Shows Cars Can Power Buildings
The future of the automobile is no doubt electric. Despite continued resistance from the oil lobby, electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to grow. EVs offer an emission free personal transport option that, with the proper infrastructure, will require little sacrifice from our current gas-guzzlers. As adoption goes up and prices come down, EVs are promising […]

The City as a Circuit Board: Smartness through Connectivity
Picture a modern city at night, viewed from directly above. Reminiscent of a circuit board with different electronic components (buildings) connected by conductive tracks (roads) to create one functioning entity from many smaller elements. Signals (people) travel along defined copper traces (roads) to deliver information and instructions to different parts of the circuit board. This […]

Welcome To Smart Japan
Europe, the US and China dominate smart city developments, Singapore and South Korea are grabbing some headlines, while India floods news feeds with its own smart city ambitions. Quietly a giant sleeps, a tech giant with the capacity for great smartness is slowly but surely developing its cities in a bid to leap frog all […]