Follow conventional wisdom handed down from architects, which holds that in the northern hemisphere, windows and solar panels should face south. This makes intuitive sense since it would seem to maximize the amount of sunlight a panel will get as the sun tracks…
Twelve Cities Apply for European Green Capital Award 2016
The deadline for submitting entries to become European Green Capital 2016 is now closed and the following 12 cities from 11 different countries have entered…
Spain's Santander, The City that Runs on Sensors
Buried under the streets of Santander, Spain—or discreetly affixed to buses, utility poles, and dumpsters—are some 12,000 electronic sensors that…
Bluesky's Digital Tree Map Helps Energy Companies Reduce the Risk of Power Cuts
Following warnings from the UK energy regulator Ofgem of an ‘horrendous’ energy crunch, aerial mapping company Bluesky is helping electricity companies ensure their power networks are resilient to the threats from falling trees and overgrown vegetation.…
Achieving Model-Based Design for the Smart Grid
Smart Meters and SCADA Contribute a Big Data Perspective Smart meters and intelligent electronic devices provide granular data about the state of the utility network in near real-time. The availability of such data is in no small part what is making the smart…
Sewer Heat Recovery Provides Low-Cost Recycled Energy
In every urban area, heat that humans have generated to shower, wash clothes, cook, and so on flows underground — in the sewers, making them very warm. Today, sewers represent the largest source of heat leakage in buildings. Even toilet water, which is at…
The Next Big, Digital Economy Is In 'Smart Energy'
The energy market is undergoing a major transformation. It’s moving towards a so-called Smart Grid, which will not only manage supply and demand of energy more effectively, but also integrate new, lower-carbon sources of electricity. This sort of transformation…
IBM's Smarter Buildings Initiative Takes Aim at Retrofits
IBM's "building whisperer," Dave Bartlett, believes many of our buildings could use a diet. Bartlett, who leads IBM's smarter building initiative, is known as the "building whisperer" because he views buildings as living organisms, an approach that can help…
