Technology Tuesday: Smart Neighborhoods

Happy St. Patrick’s Day METU partners! 

I am sure we have all heard of smart phones, smart cars, and smart watches.  Some of us even live in smart homes but have you heard of a smart neighborhood? 

This concept has been slowly appearing across the country in places like suburban Birmingham, Alabama and the Upper West Side of Atlanta, Georgia.  A smart neighborhood may be on its way somewhere near you! 

What is a smart neighborhood?  It’s a community of highly efficient homes, designed in partnership with the local energy provider.  These homes have advanced energy efficiency measures such as automation, high-efficiency heat pumps and other appliances, programmable thermostats and many other features that can be managed from your smart phone. 

One thing that makes a smart neighborhood so cool is they are normally connected to a community-scale microgrid.  This means the neighborhood generates a portion of the power it uses and is resilient to power outages.  In the smart neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, the community received energy from both the microgrid and the existing electric grid.  The community-scale microgrid is equipped with solar panels, battery energy storage, and a natural gas generator. 

Most smart neighborhoods, currently in operation, are case studies to collect data on how this technology will work in real-world applications.  I’m sure that when its all figured out, smart neighborhoods will be commonplace one day! 

 Sources: 

https://www.smartneighbor.com/pages/neighborhood 
https://casafinarealty.com/what-is-a-smart-neighborhood/ 
https://www.tdworld.com/microgrids/article/20972105/alabama-powers-smart-neighborhood  

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