Spanish technology for Smart Cities
Remote management of a green and sustainable city from a computer. This is the objective of the research project the Spanish company Wairbut is developing with the EEA Grants help.
19.11.2014
Who can fail to wonder why the city parks are irrigated even if it is raining or why there are street lights lit in broad daylight? The answer lies within the need of technological modernisation in our cities. For example, the installation of sensors would allow to establish the real need of the parks and only irrigate whenever necessary. The same regarding the street lighting and the evaluation of air quality. These are the three areas of research included in Girecon-City project developed by Wairbut, one of the selected projects within the Environment and Climate Change Programme first Open Call, operated by CDTI.
José Manuel Quesada, Head of the R&D Department in Wairbut, explains that the main objective is the research of new and best monitoring strategies applied to the integral management of energy resources and environmental pollution for the building of sustainable Smart cities.
As far as air quality is concerned, Wairbut aims at developing a roadmap for gas sensors technology applied to the cities; in water, a research about low cost and optical fibre sensors in order to establish the concrete needs and to develop more efficient irrigation protocols; and in the lighting area, to research new technology of Wireless monitoring in streetlights clusters in order to improve efficiency in electricity consumption. “Our idea is to remotely manage all these factors through sensors and to integrate them into a technological system so the clients can monitoring all the resources and for taking the appropriate decisions”, points out the project responsible. In a nutshell, the integral management of the energetic resources and environmental pollution of the city.
Just in the case of water, the Wairbut research shows that efficiency rates of 50% can be achieved.
In this project, Wairbut cooperates with the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, the company Ingenieros Asesores, University of Alcala de Henares and Polytechnic University of Madrid.
“To undertake this project without the EEA Grants would have been impossible”, explains Gerardo Cañibano, Wairbut CEO, convinced that innovation is “the only way out of the current crisis”.
Although the research project has started with this tree factors (water, lighting and air quality), the objective is continuing adding new parameters to the technological system, like parking space or urban waste management.
The results of this research are expected to benefit both city council and national or international public administrations responsible for the management of energy resources in their respective countries, as well as companies engaged in the design and distribution of technological solutions adapted to the monitoring of such resources. For example, Aukland or Kuala Lumpur have already shown interest. Because it is in this type of projects the future of the cities hinges.