Amsterdam: A Smart City Goes Live , page 1

Amsterdam: A Smart City Goes Live

www.businessweek.com...

The Dutch city's eco-friendly infrastructure has new power hookups for electric cars, solar panels, and household wind turbines.

On the streets of Amsterdam last week, major changes were afoot. The first of 1,200 households installed an energy-saving system from IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) aimed at cutting electricity costs. Others were given fresh access to financing from Dutch banks ING (ING) and Rabobank to buy everything from energy-saving light bulbs to ultra-efficient roof insulation.

While the rest of us or our politicians are hell bent in confusing and creating social order, on the other side of the planet, the governments are actively incorporating what many of us know and have either read or heard about from various news sources.

The age of technology is before us but we fail to incorporate them into our daily lives. This article provides a small fraction of what happens when governments are active and its citizens embrace what is being offered. We must understand that in the long run, we will be able to benefit as long as it is monitored from both sides.

Sounds simple, well i guess not, since many rural areas are still connected to electrical grids paying for a service that could be supplied by using other methods. They can vary from Wind generators or solar panels. The sad part is the although the governments are trying to educate its citizens on how to save money, it does nothing to rectify the actual problem.

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[edit on 9-6-2009 by tristar]