Singapore announces winners of GreenTech Challenge 2023

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GreenTech Challenge 2023

The challenge is designed to accelerate the development of innovative sustainability solutions in Singapore and help achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Tools that help organisations identify and transition to renewable energy, create and sell carbon credits and track sustainability have been named as the winners of the Singapore GreenTech Challenge 2023. The context is a collaboration between Microsoft, Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), and the tech community SGTech. Sustainability solutions Each winner will receive up to $350,000 in benefits and will be onboarded to the Microsoft Independent Software Vendor…

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Bolt and Starship partner for robot deliveries

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Starship Technologies Bolt

Autonomous delivery services company Starship Technologies has announced a partnership with European mobility super-app Bolt. The companies say the partnership “opens the door” to thousands of robots doing Bolt Food deliveries across multiple countries later this year. Multimodal options The announcement coincides with Starship celebrating what it claims is an industry milestone, become the first company to complete five million autonomous commercial deliveries around the world. Bolt has more than 100 million customers in some 45 countries and 500 cities, including in Europe, Africa, West Asia and Latin America. The…

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Seoul expands real-time urban data service for citizens

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Real-time urban data service

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced that it has expanded its real-time urban data service with the potential to link with digital technologies including virtual reality (VR) and the metaverse. The city has extended services to include information on not just population density and traffic congestion, but also cultural events and other location-based services. Population density According to SMG, as a result, a tourist visiting Seoul was able to check the status of population density and traffic congestion before visiting Deoksugung-gil and Jeongdong-gil, which were scheduled to be crowded by…

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Neom and Volocopter complete electric taxi flights in Saudi

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NEOM Volocopter eVTOL

Neom, the smart and sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia, and the urban air mobility (UAM) firm Volocopter, have announced successful completion of a series of air taxi test flights. According to Neom, this marks the first time an eVTol (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft has received a special flight authorisation and performed test flights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Electric UAM ecosystem The flight test campaign lasted over a week and built on 18 months of collaboration between Neom, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA),…

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Egypt’s first Smart Cities Experience Centre opens in Cairo

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Egypt Smart Cities Experience Centre

Siemens has announced the opening of Egypt’s first Smart Cities Experience Centre, offering customers an immersive experience that combines real and digital worlds. The centre will showcase the latest technologies for creating sustainable and efficient smart city infrastructure, buildings, and industries. It is located at Siemens in Egypt’s head office in Cairo. Smart city realisation The Smart Cities Experience Centre aims to provide a rich experience based on real project experience and aims to help ensure a successful smart city realisation. Under this concept, Siemens claims visitors can understand the…

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Rampini wins major bus contract for Italian public transport

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Eltron Rampini Elektrobus

Consip, the procurement arm of Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, has awarded a contract for the supply of up to 280 zero-emission electric buses for Italian public transport. Rampini has won the Consip tender for its Eltron model, an eight-metre long manufactured at its facility in Passignano sul Trasimeno in the Province of Perugia, Umbria. Recovery and resilience plan The vehicles purchased through Consip are financed with resources provided by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The Eltron is available in two- or three-door versions, with a…

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UK council partners for robot grocery delivery service

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Robots Wakefield Co-op Starship Technologies

UK supermarket group the Co-op has announced it is extending its autonomous robot delivery service to Wakefield, offering deliveries to 13,000 residents in the west Yorkshire town. Wakefield Council has partnered with the Co-op and Starship Technologies to offer the service to Outwood’s residents. Food delivery app Residents in some 6,500 households can place orders through the Starship food delivery app, which will be picked fresh from the local Co-op store on Meadow Vale, Outwood, and delivered in minutes. The launch of the service in Wakefield continues the expansion of…

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Smart meter penetration in LatAm set to triple by 2028

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Smart meter penetration in LatAm

The installed base of smart electricity meters in Latin America is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.7 per cent from 2022 through to 2028, according to a new research report. Last year, the penetration of smart electricity meters in the region reached 6.2 per cent in 2022. For the purposes of the study, Latin America is defined as the South American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay as well at the Central American countries – Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama. Installed units…

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Dubai unveils ocean restoration project and living lab

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DUBAI REEFS

Sustainable cities developer URB has unveiled “Dubai Reefs”, a floating living lab for marine restoration and ecotourism. The project aims to generate more than 30,000 jobs in a green economy. The Dubai Reefs project consists of a sustainable floating community for marine research, regeneration and ecotourism, and includes residential, hospitality, retail, educational and research facilities. Coastal cities The marine institute will be the heart of the project, working towards greater protection of the marine and coastal environment of Dubai. It aims to accelerate the marine science and conservation capacity of…

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Smart city market to be worth more than $300bn by 2032

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smart city market 2023

The global smart city technology market is expected to grow from approximately $121.1bn in annual revenue in 2023 to $301.2bn by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate of 10.7 per cent. The report says smart city innovation will be driven by the “intersection of social, environmental, and economic urban challenges” and the impact of transformative technologies. Digitalisation of city services The report, Smart Cities, highlights how cities are showing a strong commitment to infrastructure investment, digital technologies, and increased sustainability, often supported by central government funding. These ambitions will…

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Full-size electric seaglider mock-up unveiled by Regent

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Viceroy 12-passenger seaglider

Regent has unveiled a full-scale mock-up of its electric seaglider, which is slated for flight-testing in 2024. It has also announced plans to expand its global headquarters in Rhode Island to include up to 600,000 square feet of new manufacturing and test facilities to begin fulfilling $8bn in commercial orders by mid-decade. All electric, zero emission vehicles Regent seagliders are a new category of maritime vehicle that combines the high speed of an airplane with the low operating cost of a boat. These all-electric, zero-emission vessels operate exclusively over water…

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Commercial buildings move to IoT adoption phase

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smart building IoT

The number of internet of things (IoT) connected devices installed in commercial smart buildings reached more than 1.5 billion in 2022, according to smart building research specialist Memoori. This represents around 11.8 per cent of the total installed base of connected devices worldwide. It forecasts that the number used in commercial smart buildings will grow at a 13.7 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2023 and 2028, reaching an estimated 3.25 billion devices by 2028. IoT adoption phase Memoori reports that growth in the total installed base is…

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Smart metering to generate $60bn in vendor revenue by 2027

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smart metering research 2023 2027

Hardware, connectivity and service revenue from future and in-use smart meter deployments will exceed $60bn in 2027, up from $41bn in 2023, a news study predicts. According to the analyst Juniper Research, this 44 per cent growth reflects how smart meters are becoming critical to increasing the efficiency of energy grids via analytics and are central to lowering costs to customers during the energy price crisis. A smart meter records energy usage and leverages onboard connectivity to upload this data to energy suppliers. Smart grid opportunities By 2027, the report…

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Dubai launches citizen engagement platform

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Dubai digital city

Dubai is launching a platform to encourage citizens to provide feedback and contribute to enhancing its government services. The platform will allow officials and stakeholders to directly receive and respond to customers’ opinions, suggestions, and ideas and any challenges they may face through a three-step process. Digital Dubai The launch of 04 platform aligns with Dubai’s 360 Services policy, which places customers at the heart of developing government services and provides them with a unified platform to voice their opinions, offer suggestions and raise any challenges or complaints. It was…

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Neom progresses circular water economy strategy

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Neom

The Saudi Arabian greenfield development of Neom has chosen Worley to provide engineering and advisory services to its energy and water company, Enowa. It will provide the water supply infrastructure that will deliver up to two million cubic meters of desalinated water per day to the site, which will include The Line smart city development. Water infrastructure projects The project scopes relate to water production, brine beneficiation, management, and storage. The water infrastructure projects will be powered by renewable electricity, and the desalination process will not discharge any brine into…

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