By Ian Richardson, Building Solutions Technical Specialist within ABB Australia's Electrification business.
Buildings consume more than 30 percent of the world’s energy and contribute almost 40 percent of global carbon emissions. In an effort to tackle these challenges, national governments across the world are imposing tighter restrictions on building use, energy consumption and emissions. Shifting to more energy-efficient buildings is now regarded as central to carbon reduction strategies.
Technological innovation is making our cities more liveable, prosperous and sustainable, and the building sector is taking a lead role in embracing digital solutions that enable great efficiency, sustainability and productivity where we live and work. Today’s smarter buildings, which interconnect digital energy monitoring and control devices, have attained levels of efficiency that were never possible before the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoTs) and scalable technology.
Nowadays buildings are not limited to small-scale solutions such as setting the temperature from a remote device or turning off a light automatically. The real benefit of today’s smart building technology, provided through digital solutions such as ABB Ability™, is the power to control everything remotely. Intelligent solutions not only simplify automation in buildings but enable greater energy efficiency while increasing convenience and security.
Building smart doesn’t have to be a challenge to profitability. In fact, smart technology creates significant opportunity to increase return on investment and meet tough environmental targets. Smart buildings also speed the adoption of green technology such as electric vehicles and solar power with clever integration. And for the far-sighted, technology may even change the role that buildings play in your portfolio.
Building owners can experience reduced energy costs while shrinking their building’s CO2 emission when they cut down energy consumption in buildings. Future buildings will rely more on energy and asset management systems which leverage digital solutions based on common architecture and ‘Internet of Things’ devices connected to dedicated networks and cloud.
