X
Innovation

IBM helps New York City become solar energy leader

New York wants to make its solar energy technology smarter.
Written by Tyler Falk, Contributor

IBM announced today an agreement with CUNY Ventures to use smart city technology in an effort to make solar energy technology smarter in New York City.

The project will use IBM's Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities to help the city track and analyze solar production and capacity using a "virtual control room" that will look something like this:

According to IBM, the dashboard can be used to "analyze and understand key solar market indicators that can make solar system development more cost competitive."

The effort is part of a larger initiative by the city to generate more solar power. Back in 2007, the city became a Solar America City, an initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy, to accelerate the adoption of solar energy technologies. Together with the City University of New York, the city created the NYC Solar Map which estimates the potential solar generation and savings of rooftop solar panels on 1 million buildings throughout the city.

Since 2007, New York City has seen an eight-fold increase in solar production.

Solar, of course, isn't the only city function the smart city technology can be used for. Transportation, water, public safety, and building management can also utilize the technology. IBM has implemented its smart city technology in 2,000 projects in cities throughout the world.

Images courtesy of IBM

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

Editorial standards