Sensity aims for China’s smart city market

The smart city market in China is set to soar: over 500 cities have announced plans to implement smart city systems.

China’s smart city market is poised for high growth in the coming years, as the Chinese government aims for a 70 percent urbanization rate by 2030. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Smart City, a Beijing-based think-tank and investment vehicle, has now partnered with Sensity Systems, specialist within Light Sensory Network (LSN) technology, to create a global platform for smart city solutions.

Under the terms of the new green field joint venture, the two organizations are planning to build an IoT platform for smart cities that is compatible with Sensity’s current IoT Smart City Platform. “The Chinese Smart City market will be the largest and fastest growing in the world. Today, more than 500 cities in China have announced their plans to implement Smart City systems,” said Dr. Feng Yuan, director of CAS Smart City, in a statement.

Under its 12th ”Five Year Plan” for the period 2011-2015, China saw total investments in smart cities reach $260 billion (1.6 trillion RMB), according to data from the China Academy of ICT (CAICT), an organization linked to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Investments were made in smart grids, smart transport, smart water supplies, smart land administration and smart logistics. As of today, China has over 80 cities with over one million inhabitants, out of a total of 654 cities. China’s 13th ”Five Year Plan” for the period 2016-2020 aims at a 70 percent rate of urbanization by 2030, which means adding 350 million people in the country’s cities by then.

But rapid urbanization means that a number of socioeconomic and environmental problems will have to be addressed, in China just as in other countries. “The issues confronting cities, such as pollution, traffic congestion, energy consumption and threats of terrorism, are similar around the globe. Further, in our increasingly interconnected world, actions of one country may impact other countries. We need a common platform and standards to allow applications and services to be leveraged to help solve city and environmental problems globally,” said Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Sensity.

The joint venture between CAS Smart City and Sensity, which is expected to start operations in the third quarter of 2016, will be based in Nansha, a district of the Guangzhou province in China. The organizations’ ambition is to deploy smart city technology in 50 cities around the world. Both parties will contribute capital, technology and workforce to the joint venture. “Up until now, given China’s requirements for Smart City solutions, there has not been a way to bridge Smart City work underway in China with that of the rest of the world. By forming a joint venture that can leverage the best of Sensity and CAS Smart City, along with application compatibility, we can both help accelerate the creation of an optimal Smart City platform for China, and at the same time ensure a global marketplace for software application developers to help address common problems in a similar way,” said Hugh Martin.

IIoT News Recap: Amazon; Nissan and Enel; Greenwich borrough

Amazon’s IoT Dash button sold out within hours of release

Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels announced on Friday the release of Amazon’s programmable IoT Dash button to developers. Within hours, the stock was sold out. The buttons are a new programmable version of Amazon’s Dash buttons, which allow customers to order fast-moving consumer goods such as washing powder or coffee at the push of a button. The new programmable button is a good way for Amazon to let developers try its AWS cloud and IoT platform.

Nissan and Enel team up on first ever vehicle-to-grid (V2G) trial in the UK

Power company Enel and car maker Nissan have confirmed plans launch the UK’s first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) trial. The companies will install and connect one hundred V2G units at locations agreed by private and fleet owners of the Nissan LEAF and e-NV200 electric van, enabling Nissan electric vehicle owners to plug their vehicles into the V2G system. ”Today’s announcement heralds an exciting era for energy management in the UK. Not only will Nissan electric vehicle owners be able to play an active role in grid stability, providing an alternate source of income, but it will revolutionize how energy is supplied to the grid,” said Enel in a statement.

Greenwich seeks community feedback on driverless vehicles

The Royal borough of Greenwich, United Kingdom, has asked people who live, work, study or travel in Royal Greenwich to share their views on driverless vehicles as part of the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project, an £8million research project jointly funded by government and industry, which aims to ”investigate the use, perception and acceptance of autonomous vehicles in the UK”. Members of the public can also sign up for a chance to trial driverless vehicles in Greenwich later this year.