Three smartest green cities in Asia

Private house with solar panels and design to take advantage of wind and natural light - Photo: edb.gov.sg

A zero-energy city (Japan), a city without garbage trucks (South Korea), and a billion-dollar smart technology city (Singapore) are three cities that are harnessing technology to design the future.

The review was posted on the website edb.gov.sg of the Economic Development Board of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore in early April 2018.

Shioashiya - the town with zero energy consumption

In a corner of Ashiya City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, Shioashiya is a town designed and developed by PanaHome - a subsidiary of the Panasonic electronics corporation.

Town area 120,000m²Designed to accommodate 9,000 people, it currently has 400 private homes and an 83-unit apartment complex. Beyond the smart criteria, the town planners also aim to reduce energy consumption and maximize renewable energy.

Each house here is equipped with solar panels on the roof, batteries to store electricity, a home energy management system that allows the use of clean energy when needed, allows sharing energy with neighbors, and turns off household appliances when not in use.

Apartment and office complex in Shioashiya - Photo: edb.gov.sg

The house's architecture is also geared towards energy efficiency, with Puretech technology and an Eco-Navi ventilation system keeping the house from getting too hot in the summer and cool enough in the winter, without requiring too much energy consumption.

For apartments, the solar power system is installed on the rooftop; fuel tanks brought to the apartment become the source, producing electricity from the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.

Each apartment in Shioashiya generates about 199 megawatt hours of electricity a year, far more than the town’s real estate needs. The excess electricity is sold back to the grid, generating an annual income of about $11,700 for the management association, according to PanaHome.

The house's architecture is also geared towards energy efficiency, with Puretech technology and an Eco-Navi ventilation system keeping the house from getting too hot in the summer and cool enough in the winter, without requiring too much energy consumption.

For apartments, the solar power system is installed on the rooftop; fuel tanks brought to the apartment become the source, producing electricity from the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.

Each apartment in Shioashiya generates about 199 megawatt hours of electricity a year, far more than the town’s real estate needs. The excess electricity is sold back to the grid, generating an annual income of about $11,700 for the management association, according to PanaHome.

Located between the sea and mountains, the wind and light sources around Shioashiya are extremely abundant, helping to cool, ventilate and illuminate the buildings - Photo: edb.gov.sg

Songdo - say no to garbage trucks

For most urban dwellers, the unpleasant smell of garbage trucks is part of the equation. However, visitors to Songdo, an international business district in South Korea, will quickly notice that there are no garbage trucks on the streets.

Trash bins connected to pneumatic tubes transporting waste underneath the city - Photo: edb.gov.sg

The 600-hectare urban area, built on reclaimed land for a private real estate project, has a waste collection system using pneumatic tubes. Waste placed in bins at home or on the street is transported directly through pipes to a sorting and treatment facility where it is recycled or incinerated.

Thanks to this waste collection system, Songdo is expected to recycle 76% of its waste by 2020. Meanwhile, Seoul recycled about 46% of its waste in 2013, aiming to increase this number to 66% by 2030.

This is just one of many features in the plan to build a smart, sustainable city that is expected to cost $40 billion, including charging stations for electric vehicles, traffic control services using sensors, and security monitoring throughout the city.

Drawing depicting the underground waste transport system in Songdo - Photo: edb.gov.sg

Although the city is still under construction, it is already habitable. While only 40,000 people live in Songdo, today there are about 2,600 businesses as well as several United Nations agencies. When completed in 2020, the Songdo International Business District is expected to house 65,000 people.

Although the city is still under construction, Songdo already has 40,000 residents, about 2,600 businesses, and several United Nations agencies. When completed in 2020, Songdo is expected to have a population of 65,000.

Singapore - Billion Dollar Smart Technology Hub

With the ambition to become a "smart nation", Singapore uses technology to develop sustainably, boost the economy, create businesses, attract foreign investment, thereby creating a springboard to position itself as a startup and innovation center in the Asia-Pacific region.

To achieve that goal, the country has invited companies from around the world to Singapore, turning the city into a "living" laboratory to test and commercialize new technological solutions. Singapore has invested more than 22 billion USD in research and development in the past 10 years.

The government played a key role in developing JTC LaunchPad @ one-north - a community for startups in the Ayer Rajah neighbourhood. Thanks to its “smart nation” vision and “ease of doing business” branding, the number of new startups in Singapore increased from 24,000 to 55,000 between 2005 and 2015.

According to research by Venture Capital Asia magazine, technology companies in Singapore attracted $1.7 billion worth of venture capital in 2013, ahead of other Asian counterparts including Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.