Smart Energy for Smart Cities

Urbanisation is in the core of development theory for countries across the globe. By 2030, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities. Today, more than half of the overall world population is living in urban areas and this is ever- increasing.

Being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India is aggressively expanding its urban reach. Of late, the country has embarked upon building 100 smart cities under the Smart City Mission and has already announced names of 60 of them. It is estimated that half of the urban centres in India and 70 per cent of its entire infrastructure that will exist in 2030 are yet to be built. In a bid to fill this gap and prepare the cities for future, there is an increasing focus on sustainable development.

The future of sustainable urban development is being determined by efficient management of energy. Energy management across the urban infrastructure segments including transportation, buildings, power, water and wastewater, and lighting will fuel the development agenda for cities of future.

Sustainable lighting infrastructure to facilitate installation of energy efficient LEDs will change the face of upcoming cities. Optimisation of renewable energy resources especially through solar rooftop will reduce grid load.

Energy management through better thermal insulation and acoustic design is becoming essential to meet green building standards as buildings use about 40% of global energy. Today's advanced insulation solutions will play greater role in this context.

Reference:

Technavio smart city market report- 2016-2020

Indian express article on sustainable development in cities for saving future.

UNEP about SBCI background.