Profiting from growth in online Arabic content

As the number of active internet users among the world’s 630 million Arabic speakers grows and consumers in the Middle East demand more relevant and locally produced original material, global online media leaders like Google and CNN are investing substantially to boost Arabic‑language online content.

Launch of Arabic domain names will boost online content

By Peter Feuilherade

This article was first published in The Middle East magazine, London, May 2014 issue.

 

A report by the global consultancy Booz & Company estimates that the number of active Arab internet users will rise to 13 million by 2014, compared with 10 million in 2012. The study also reveals that around 37% of internet users in the MENA region are not satisfied with the availability of Arabic websites.

Google notes there has been a great improvement in Arabic online content creation in the last two years. However, Arabic content still comprises only about 3% of overall internet content, and there is “a huge gap between the number of people who speak Arabic and the amount of content available online,” according to Maha Abouelenein, head of communications at Google for the MENA region.

CNN recorded a 70% increase in unique users and visitors to its Arabic‑language portal, CNNArabic.com, during 2013.

Al‑Jazeera, MSN Arabia and BBC Arabic are also driving growth in Arabic-language news content. Meanwhile internet giant Yahoo’s Middle East portal, Yahoo Maktoob, has revamped both its Arabic and English content. It promises extensive football coverage in the run‑up to this year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, including exclusive analysis from Chelsea manager José Mourinho, Yahoo’s “football ambassador” signing for 2014.

The growth potential for content in Arabic is immense, and the arrival and spread of Arabic domain names will be a major boost.

The first Arabic top-level domain name, meaning “web” and transcribed in English as “shabaka”,  was approved for use in March 2013 by California-based ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the global authority which manages the world’s domain names and IP numbers. Shabaka became generally available in February 2014, in the anticipation that it will stimulate a new phase for Arabic content online.

dotShabaka Registry is a Dubai-based internet technology company behind the new domain name. Yasmin Omer, general manager of dotShabaka Registry, explained that while previously search engine users had to type in English and use web translation to get into Arabic websites, with the introduction of .shabaka, they could now type in Arabic and get directly into Arabic content. “There is no better way for businesses to demonstrate their affiliation with the Arabic language online than by registering a domain name," Omer told the Abu Dhabi newspaper The National.

As the market for online content in Arabic expands, a growing proportion of the content is appearing in video rather than text form.

According to a March 2014 survey from Jordan-based Startappz, an app developer and digital advertising agency, about 93% of the videos produced in the Middle East are in Arabic. Technology and gaming, news, music and comedy are all popular categories.

Content producers on Google-owned YouTube are rushing to meet the demand for Arabic content. With four billion views globally per day and a billion unique visitors per month, YouTube launched its monetization policy in 2013 in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This allows users to earn money from content uploaded.

"We have 310 million views a day and have two hours of video uploaded every minute and most of it is in Arabic," said Diana Baddar, YouTube video partnerships manager for MENA. “We also have the second largest presence in the MENA region after the US and have thousands of creators creating content in Arabic, which is diverse and popular.”

Top categories for videos produced in the Arabic language “are across general entertainment like comedy, music and movies”, according to Google.

Although YouTube offers only visual content, the site could be significant in adding to the overall online content in Arabic. “General Arabic content, regardless of where it came, is a plus. It is the right step in increasing Arabic content,” said Dr Fayeq Oweis, a language services manager for Google.

But analysts point out that increasing digital content does not simply mean creating more websites and mobile apps in Arabic. High-quality content is also required from producers in ‘traditional’ industries such as writers, film makers, game publishers and government bodies.

Education and learning, information services, entertainment and gaming, and social media are seen as among the most profitable sectors. A report by the US market research firm Ambient Insight forecast that revenues for self‑paced e‑learning products in the Middle East would reach US$ 560 million by 2016, with the public and private academic institutions comprising the region’s biggest buyers.

Another area to benefit from the expansion of Arabic content is the Middle East’s e‑commerce market, in which the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the current leaders. A study by PayPal forecasts that e‑commerce across the MENA region will grow to US$ 15 billion by 2015, with 10% of transactions done via mobile devices. The Gulf has some of the highest rates of smartphone penetration in the world, with the UAE close to 200%, closely followed by Saudi Arabia.

Annual revenue on smartphone applications in the Middle East is predicted to reach more than US$ 200 million by 2015 as demand for Arabic‑language applications increases.

In March 2014 the Dubai-based e‑commerce site Souq.com raised US$ 75 million in funding from the South African media conglomerate Naspers. Souq will invest part of this funding on developing its mobile technology, as its founder and CEO Ronaldo Mouchawar is adamant that the high mobile penetration rates in the GCC region are providing a major boost to e-commerce.

The deal for a stake in Souq.com valued the company at more than US$ 500 million. A Wall Street Journal commentator described it as “another milestone for e-commerce in a region traditionally averse to transacting online”.

Although the private sector has been the driving force behind most Arabic content produced in the region, multimillion dollar projects to expand electronic government (e‑government) have also created opportunities for content developers. Again, the lead is coming from the GCC states. All six member countries operate their own e‑government portal. They are now in transition to the next stage, which will see the rapid expansion of the provision of public services over smartphones and similar mobile devices.

Finally, another massive expansion of Arabic content is expected to flow from the various “smart city” projects that have been launched in the Gulf in recent years: six in Saudi Arabia, three in Qatar and two in the UAE: Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and Smart City Dubai.

Personal systems herald "smart mobility"

New systems will introduce personalized modes of transport in urban areas

 

Automated or "self-driving" personal transport systems are no longer the preserve of science fiction. They are now up and running at several locations around the world. IEC standardization work will prove instrumental in the expansion of systems that use innovative pod-type vehicles as well as for two- and three-wheeled "personal transporters".

By Peter Feuilherade

Driverless pod in service at Heathrow airport

This article first appeared in the March 2014 issue of e-tech, published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Geneva

Personal, rapid, clean and safe

Small self-driving electric powered vehicles running on dedicated guideways and designed for on-demand use by individuals or small groups, typically four to six passengers, are often referred to as PRTs (personal rapid transit systems).

PRTs are intended to combine the convenience and privacy of cars with the environmental benefits of mass transit. Their primary aims are to achieve optimum door to door mobility, improve safety, reduce environmental impact and lower operational costs.

They are part of the advance towards a new era of "smart mobility" in which infrastructure, methods of short distance transport, passengers and goods will be increasingly interconnected, especially in urban areas.

PRTs operate on networks of specially built guideways, with traffic controlled by a central computer to eliminate collisions and minimize congestion.

They are usually powered by onboard batteries recharged at stops, and guided by GPS (Global Positioning System) to destinations selected on touchscreens. Conventional steering can be used on a simple track consisting only of a road surface with some form of reference for the vehicle's steering sensors.

The oldest system similar to a PRT has been in operation since 1975 in the US city of Morgantown, West Virginia. Comprising cars which hold about 20 passengers and run on a ground-mounted rail, it is more properly described as "Group Rapid Transit".

Pod systems in operation

Driverless electric pods used in Masdar City

Worldwide there are currently two fully operational PRT systems: at Heathrow Airport near London and Masdar City near Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates).

The driverless pod service at Heathrow, operated by UK company Ultra Global, was launched in May 2011. The system comprises 21 pods running at a maximum speed of 40 kph along guideways on a 3,9 km route between Terminal 5 and a business car park; up to 100-120 vehicles can be dispatched every hour.

The pods are powered by electric motors and use Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries which recharge when parked at stations, bypassing the need for electrification along the track. The batteries provide an average 2 kW of motive power, and add only 8% to the gross weight of the vehicle.

The pods have onboard computers and are guided by laser sensors. Passenger information is updated on LCD screens in the pods, and a wireless communication system allows for two-way exchange of data and commands between vehicles and central control.

Passenger safety measures include continuous CCTV and black box monitoring of all pods; an independent "Automatic Vehicle Protection" system that protects against pod collision on the guideway; safety interlocks between the brakes, motor and doors; and emergency exits, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers fitted in all pods.

A complete pod system like the one at Heathrow, including guideway, stations, vehicles and control systems costs somewhere between USD 7 million and USD 15 million per km to construct, according to the system's operators. They say the pods have saved over 200 tonnes of CO₂ per annum and reduced the number of bus journeys on the airport's roads by 70 000 a year.

Heathrow Airport Limited’s business plan for 2014-2019 includes plans for another PRT system linking Terminals 2 and 3 to their respective business car parks.

As part of a GBP 75 million UK government scheme to enable businesses to make and test low carbon technologies, trials of driverless cars will start in Milton Keynes, a so-called "new" town 80 km north of London which was built on a "grid plan" in the 1960s.

The specific technology has not yet been announced but plans are for an initial batch of 20 driver-operated pods able to carry two passengers to enter service in 2015, followed in 2017 by 100 fully autonomous (driverless) pods that will run on pathways alongside but separated from pedestrian areas. The vehicles will be able to travel at up to 19 kph and will be equipped with onboard sensors that will enable them to detect and respond to obstacles.

The driverless electric pods used in Masdar City near Abu Dhabi have carried more than 820 000 passengers since the system, designed by Dutch company 2getthere, was launched in November 2010.

Masdar City is an initiative by the UAE government to build a new small city based on renewable energy and developed around green technologies, including public transport

The pods run at 25 kph and are powered by lithium phosphate batteries, which are charged using solar energy. They travel on tracks equipped with embedded magnets placed every 5 m which the vehicle uses, along with information about wheel angles and speed, to determine its location. Pods designed to carry freight also operate at the site.

Feasibility tests in other countries

Other countries examining the feasibility of PRT systems include Taiwan and Brazil. In Florianopolis, a provincial Brazilian city in which large parts of the city are laid out on a coastal island while the remainder of the city is on the mainland, car traffic between the two is served by a single bridge, leading to peak time bottlenecks. The local authorities are mulling over using PRT as a local distribution network within the dense central business district situated on the island, as part of a multimodal transport proposal that would include ferries and monorail.

In Singapore, NTU (Nanyang Technological University) and French company Induct Technology are collaborating on tests of a driverless electric shuttle vehicle powered by lithium polymer batteries and capable of carrying 8 passengers at a maximum speed of 20 kph. The vehicle uses laser mapping and sensors to manoeuvre, runs on a predefined route and recharges at docking stations. It serves as a testbed for new charging technologies such as wireless induction and new super capacitors for electric vehicles.

Other personal urban mobility prototype vehicles have been demonstrated in recent years but never put into production. They include self-driving pods unveiled by the US multinational General Motors Company in 2010. Powered by electric motors and with a range of 65 km, the two-seater vehicles were crammed with technology including roof mounted GPS, Wi-Fi, vehicle to vehicle communication systems, front-mounted ultrasonic and vision systems and collision avoidance sensors.

IEC makes safety top priority

The top priority in the operation of automated public transport networks is to ensure provision of the highest levels of safety while not restricting the introduction of new technology. Such networks depend heavily on computer-based management, control and communication systems.

The IEC TCs (Technical Committees) whose activities cover automated public transport systems and personal transport pods include TC 9: Electrical equipment and systems for railways, TC 21: Secondary cells and batteries, and TC 47: Semiconductor devices, and its SCs (Subcommittees).

TC 9: Electrical equipment and systems for railways, is responsible for International Standards relating to the systems, power components and electronic hardware and software used in fully automatic transport systems operating in the wider context of urban rail and metro transport (see article on TC 9 in this e-tech). This includes safety aspects such as passenger alarm systems and automatic system surveillance. TC 9 works in liaison with other relevant IEC TCs, for example, coordinating with TC 69: Electric road vehicles and electric industrial trucks, on the development of double-layer capacitors for energy storage, and with TC 56: Dependabilty, which covers the reliability of electronic components and equipment and is included as a characteristic of quality.

TC 21: Secondary cells and batteries, prepares International Standards for all secondary cells and batteries. This covers the performance, dimensions, safety installation principles and labelling of batteries used in electric vehicles.

TC 47 and its SCs prepare International Standards for semiconductor devices used in sensors and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) installed in personal transport systems.

Driverless vehicles approaching

Existing PRT networks, albeit small-scale, combine the advantages of flexibility in terms of planning available with individual means of transport with those of urban public transport systems. They have proved safe, reliable and environmentally friendly and offer a feasible public transport option for tourist attractions, business parks, hospitals and university campuses. They could also be one way forward for "last mile" solutions in urban environments, although the density of traffic in cities would pose more complex and diverse challenges than, for example, in an airport setting.

Consumers would pay a fraction of the cost of buying and running an individual car, while building dedicated trackways would be much cheaper than the cost of most traditional transport infrastructure.

As the Heathrow system's operator told e-tech in an interview, "an innovative and now proven technology that responds to patrons' desire for on-demand, direct and personal transport should be seen not only as a viable but altogether a more economically, socially and environmentally beneficial alternative to conventional forms of public transport".

The wider significance of driverless pod networks is that they are part of a long term trend in the car industry to develop autonomous vehicle control systems equipped with a combination of sensors and dedicated software for the personal mobility sector.

Tests on autonomous cars have already begun. As well as the Milton Keynes trial set for 2015, NTU in Singapore has tested a driverless electric vehicle on a 2 km shuttle route, while autonomous electric cars have also been tested on roads in Japan. In the US, the technology giant Google has been licensed to experiment with driverless vehicles, and says that in tests its cars have logged about 500 000 km without an accident. And in 2017 the Swedish city of Gothenburg will start a pilot project with 100 cars and 100 regular drivers who will manually drive cars to roads where they then join road trains and switch to autonomous driving.

Software will be crucial to autonomous travel, not only to calculate a vehicle's position and route from a constant stream of incoming data, but also to react to unforeseen obstacles.

However, it could be decades before passenger cars driving autonomously win consumer and government acceptance to reach the mass market. One way to help promote autonomous driving would be to incorporate technologies such as coordinated traffic lights and smart parking systems in the design of smart cities.

The US based market research and consulting firm Navigant Research forecast in August 2013 that sales of autonomous vehicles would rise from fewer than 8 000 annually in 2020 to 95,4 million in 2035, representing 75% of all light duty vehicle sales by that time. In addition to advanced driver assistance features now available in some vehicles, such as adaptive speed control, automatic emergency braking and lane departure warning, new features that could assume control of more aspects of driving would be introduced gradually, Navigant predicted.

"The first features will most likely be self-parking, traffic jam assistance, and freeway cruising – well-defined situations that lend themselves to control by upgraded versions of today’s onboard systems", said David Alexander, senior research analyst at Navigant Research.

Personal transporters - flexible use for multiple applications

 Personal transporters can be used for indoor, sidewalk, cross-terrain and patrol use

Electric stand-up personal transporters (like Segways and their one or two-wheeled derivatives, or alternative machines such as Roboscooters) are devices that are controlled by the body movements of the driver and are equipped with self balancing mechanisms

They are also available as personal scooters in three-wheeled configurations, which offer greater stability and the option of riding seated on larger models. These vehicles are generally powered by Li-ion batteries, removable on some models to allow longer operational cycles. Some versions may include regenerative braking capability, allowing batteries to recharge during deceleration.

Stability is maintained using a combination of computers, tilt sensors, gyroscopic sensors and motors that rotate the wheels forwards or backwards as required for balance or propulsion.

Personal transporters target the individual consumer market for urban commuting or leisure, as well as corporate users including police forces, security firms, ports and airports, factories, shopping centres, campuses, sports stadiums and amusement parks.

Manufacturers in the US estimate the operating costs of three-wheelers used in police patrol duty to be around USD 0,10 per day.

Going green: cutting costs with smart buildings

By 2050, according to current forecasts, about 6,3 billion people, comprising nearly 70% of the world's population, will be living in cities. This great surge of urbanization and the rise of megacities, each with a population greater than 10 million, will occur mostly in developing countries and boost demand for smart buildings and housing. 

 By Peter Feuilherade

Smart buildings in Lusail City, Qatar

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This article first appeared in the November 2013 issue of e-tech, published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Geneva.
 

Evolving concept

The concept of a smart (or intelligent) building has evolved over the last four decades and now generally refers to the integration of a range of systems that improve the lifestyles of a building’s occupants and the efficiency of its operations, especially its consumption of energy and other utilities. The automation of building operations, management and maintenance is integral to the concept.

In the words of the US-based Institute for Building Efficiency, "at the most fundamental level, smart buildings deliver useful building services that make occupants productive (e.g. illumination, thermal comfort, air quality, physical security, sanitation, and many more) at the lowest cost and environmental impact over the building lifecycle."

Smart buildings are often, but not exclusively, associated with the smart city, a term originally used to signify the roles of technology and innovation in urban development, but now increasingly linked with achieving sustainability.

Wide range of features

Achieving a smart building's aims, for economic and environmental reasons, involves the use of a wide range of features including adaptive lighting with occupancy sensing; smart meters that display overall use of electricity and help consumers to monitor and reduce their usage; sensors that gather and wirelessly communicate alerts or data about heat, light, movement and use of space; and the exchange of data between different systems. The cost of wireless sensors has dropped below USD 10 per unit and makes the installation of a smart building management system increasingly affordable.

With commercial buildings accounting for 40% of global energy consumption and contributing 20% of the carbon emissions, BEMS (building energy management systems) can help minimize energy use and cost. Smart buildings play a vital role in the effectiveness of Smart Grids, by helping to align energy generation with energy consumption. Buildings can receive requests to reduce demand when wholesale prices are high or when grid reliability is jeopardized. A smart building management system can also usually detect when an item of equipment is close to failure and alert staff to deal with the problem.

The main forces driving the smart building market are the ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, cut maintenance and operating costs and enhance the life of the building as well as improving the comfort and security of its occupants.

Asia and Middle East lead

Central courtyard and windtower at the Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Although Europe and North America pioneered smart cities in the 1980s-90s, more smart buildings are now being built from scratch in the Middle East and even more so in Asia, with its soaring rates of urbanization.

Smart buildings can be found in smart city projects such as Masdar City in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), Lusail City in Qatar, King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia, Songdo in South Korea and Fujisawa in Japan. In China, the government has planned more than 600 smart city projects during its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), with an emphasis on water and energy infrastructure, energy-efficient buildings and traffic management. Asia’s dynamic construction activity is expected to bolster its current share (25%) of the global market for building automation systems and controls, BEMS (20%) and intelligent lighting controls (17%).

The Middle East, despite enjoying low energy costs, is also a prolific source of progressive smart building design. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE allocated more than USD 63 billion to develop smart city projects between 2012 and 2017. The aim of the developers of the USD 22 billion project in Masdar City, 17 km from Abu Dhabi, is to create the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, with the emphasis on energy efficiency.

Huge developing market

The US-based market research and consulting firm Navigant Research forecast in July 2013 that the worldwide market for BEMS, driven by technology advances as well as growing familiarity among customers with the benefits they bring, will grow from just under USD 1,8 billion in annual revenues in 2012 to nearly USD 5,6 billion in 2020, a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15,3%. The market will be concentrated in North America and Europe, although the Asia-Pacific market is where growth is fastest.

Meanwhile, global revenues from wireless control systems for building automation will reach USD 294,8 million by 2020, when annual worldwide shipments of wireless nodes for building controls will total 36 million units. And global revenues from networked lighting control equipment within commercial buildings will grow from USD 1,7 billion in 2013 to USD 5,3 billion in 2020.

According to Navigant, the trillions of dollars that will be spent on urban infrastructure present "an immense opportunity for new transport management systems, Smart Grids, water monitoring systems, and energy efficient buildings".

The smart buildings market, along with other "smart" sectors such as energy, water and transport, is a major contributor to the worldwide growth of the overall smart cities market.

A forecast by the US company IDC Energy Insights estimates that global spending on smart building technologies alone will grow from USD 5,5 billion in 2012 to USD 18,1 billion in 2017 (a CAGR of 27,1%).

Global technology research firm ON World predicted in September 2013 that 100 million WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) devices would be installed in non-residential smart buildings globally by 2019, an 11-fold increase from 2011.

Energy and electricity are key

The IEC develops International Standards covering a broad range of systems, equipment and applications used in the construction and maintenance of smart buildings, encompassing lighting, automation, access control, energy systems, appliances, elevators and escalators, among others. The work of IEC TCs (Technical Committees) plays a vital role in helping to ensure safety as well as interoperability.

Some of the IEC TCs working in the smart buildings sector include TC 34: Lamps and related equipment for general, professional and emergency lighting; TC 59: Performance of household and similar electrical appliances; TC 82: Solar photovoltaic energy systems; TC 47: Semiconductor devices; and TC 72: Automatic electrical controls.

For Smart Grid applications, the IEC published a Smart Grid Standardization Roadmap in 2010 and has defined a range of Standards, among them Standards for substation control (IEC 61850), energy (IEC 61970) and distribution management (IEC 61968) and meter reading (IEC 62056). The CIM (Common Information Model) for Distribution and Energy Management provides a CIM necessary for exchanges of data between devices and networks, primarily in the transmission (IEC 61970) and distribution (IEC 61968) domains, and is a cornerstone of IEC Smart Grid standardization.

Integration and interoperability of smart building technologies

Smart building technologies such as wireless sensors are becoming increasingly interoperable. Several technologies are converging in building controls that will, for example, allow light sources to carry out a dual role as sensors and information nodes too in a distributed network, managing heat, air conditioning, and building security as well as office lighting. Cloud-based technology will have a growing impact on how intelligent buildings are run, linking them with power grids and multimodal transport systems.

There is a strong business case for strategic investments in smart building technologies which help to reduce facility operating costs over time. However, some property owners and investors still need persuading. In the view of Leo O'Loughlin, senior vice-president of Jones Lang LaSalle’s energy and sustainability services business, "not everyone is aware that the tremendous advantages of today’s affordable smart building management technologies easily justify the cost".

Electric Urban Transport

By Peter Feuilherade

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This article first appeared in the April 2013 issue of e-tech, published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Geneva..
www.iec.ch/etech

It was also published by MENA Rail News

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A revival after a long decline

More than half the world’s population now live in cities, according to United Nations data, and that percentage is forecast to hit 60% by 2030. By 2025 there will be 37 megacities (22 of them in Asia), each home to more than 10 million people. The growing use of electric buses, trams and metropolitan “light railways” offers an environmentally friendly option to reduce local emission of pollutants significantly in the expanding cities of the future.

Nothing new

Urban public transport systems powered by electricity can trace their origins to 1879 when Berlin launched the world’s first electric suburban railway (S-Bahn), followed by electric trams in 1881 and electric trolleybuses a year later.

With transport systems estimated to account for between 20% and 25% of world energy consumption and CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, electric vehicles offer greater efficiency than their diesel counterparts. Using their brakes, they can generate kinetic energy to be recycled back into the power network. Electric engines on buses and trams cause less vibration, making journeys more comfortable for passengers and reducing maintenance time and costs.

Several IEC TCs (Technical Committees) prepare International Standards for the electric buses, trams, trolleybuses and metro/light rail vehicles used in public urban transport networks, as well as the batteries, capacitors and fuel cells used in propulsion systems, and many other components.

Buses

Electric buses, which require neither great range nor speed and can be partially recharged during their journeys as they stop for passengers, are seen as the most promising area for potential growth of green urban public transport.

China is the world leader in developing battery electric buses. The southern city of Shenzhen has the world’s largest zero-carbon fleet of all-electric buses and taxis, and plans to have 6 000 electric buses in service by 2015. Shenzhen is also home to the world’s largest manufacturer of electric buses, BYD (Build Your Dreams). The company has started to enter overseas electric bus markets. At the start of 2013 its vehicles received Whole Vehicle Type-Approval from the European Union, giving the company the green light to sell its buses to all EU member countries without further certification.
The number of electric buses in countries other than China is limited but growing.


The US-based market research and consulting firm Pike Research forecast in August 2012 that the global market for all electric-drive buses including hybrid, battery electric and fuel cell buses will grow steadily over the next six years, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 26,4% from 2012 to 2018. According to Pike, the largest sales volumes will come in Asia Pacific, with more than 15 000 e-buses being sold in that region in 2018 – 75% of the world total. China will account for the majority of global e-bus sales, Pike predicts. It believes that growth in the e-bus market will accelerate strongly in Eastern Europe and Latin America, the latter driven largely by Brazil. Sales in Western Europe will experience steady growth (around a 20% CAGR), according to Pike.

A December 2012 report by the research and consultancy firm IDTechEx forecast that the market for electric buses and taxis will grow from USD 6,24 billion in 2011 to USD 54 billion in 2021, of which the largest part will be buses. China will become by far the largest market for both electric buses and electric taxis. According to Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx, “in China… over 100 000 electric buses a year will eventually be bought as part of the national programme”.

 

Trolleybuses

Trolleybuses are electric buses that use spring-loaded trolley poles to draw their electricity from overhead lines, generally suspended from roadside posts, as distinct from other electric buses that rely on batteries. Because they do not require tracks or rails, they are more flexible than trams and drivers can cross the bus lane, making the installation of a trolleybus system much cheaper. Trolleybuses operate in some 370 cities or metropolitan areas worldwide, according to the Trolley Project, which aims “to unlock the vast potential of trolleybuses to transform public transport systems” across Europe in line with the European Commission’s target to reduce traffic-related CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.

Trams

In the 1960s the tram saw a decline in favour of diesel driven buses, but the backlash in recent years against pollution and dependence on fossil fuels has seen a resurgence of interest in electric trams as another urban transport system that can carry large numbers of passengers efficiently and generates no emissions at the point of use. Tram systems do not need vast financing compared with underground systems, which are typically four times more expensive to construct. However, in addition to its relative high cost, compared to that of buses or trolleybuses, the greatest disadvantage of the tram is its confinement to a set route by the wires and tracks it requires. The largest tram networks are in Melbourne, St Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Toronto, Budapest, Bucharest and Prague. Dozens of cities in North America are exploring or planning tram systems.

Metro and light rail

In a December 2012 study SCI Verkehr GmbH, an international management consultancy based in Germany, forecast the global growth in railway electrification at a CAGR of 3,4% up to 2016.
Market growth is mainly driven by new metro and electric light rail urban transport projects under way on most continents, from major cities in Asia and the Persian Gulf to North and South Africa and North American urban areas.

A metro rapid transit system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, typically located either in underground tunnels or on elevated rails above street level. It allows higher capacity with less land use, less environmental impact and a lower cost than typical light rail systems.

Light rail systems use small electric-powered trains or trams that generally have a lower capacity and lower speed than normal trains to serve large metropolitan areas. They usually operate at ground level, but can include underground or overhead zones.

A common feature to rail systems: IEC International Standards

All urban rail systems rely on International Standards developed by IEC TC 9: Electrical equipment and systems for railways. Areas covered include rolling stock, fixed installations, management systems (including communication, signalling and processing systems) for railway operation, their interfaces and their ecological environment. These standards deal with electromechanical and electronic aspects of power components as well as electronic hardware and software components.

 

Batteries and fuel cells

Buses, which have defined, short routes and daily travel distances of less than 200 km, are well suited to battery-only electric technology. Li-ion (Lithium-ion) technology is the most commonly used. Pure electric buses divide into those using high power density Li-ion batteries alone and those with large banks of supercapacitors in the roof to manage fast charge and discharge and increase battery life. Hydrogen powered fuel-cell vehicles provide longer range than battery electric vehicles. Refuelling times are short and comparable with present internal combustion engine vehicles. Currently, the main drawbacks of hydrogen powered vehicles are the high cost, mainly due to expensive fuel cells, and the lack of refuelling infrastructure. IEC TCs prepare International Standards for batteries and fuel cells used in urban transport systems.

IEC TC 21: Secondary cells and batteries, has prepared standards covering requirements and tests for batteries for road vehicles, locomotives, industrial trucks and mechanical handling equipment. Its work includes standards for performance, reliability, abuse testing and dimensions for hybrid and plug-in hybrid Li-ion batteries, which are seen as one of the most promising types of secondary batteries.

IEC TC 105: Fuel cell technologies, is responsible for standards for fuel cell commercialization and adoption. It focuses on safety, installation and performance of both stationary fuel cell systems and for transportation, both for propulsion and as auxiliary power units.

Almost all fuel cell buses incorporate a battery for energy storage and there is also a balance to be struck in the hybridization of the fuel cell power plant and the supporting battery pack. While fuel cell costs remain high and hydrogen infrastructure sparse, it may be more economical to use battery-dominant buses with fuel cell range extenders. The fuel cell bus sector is showing year-on-year growth, with more prototypes being unveiled. Successful deployments have taken place in Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA but the high capital cost is still a barrier to widespread adoption.

Pike Research forecasts that global demand for Li-ion batteries in electric drive buses will be more than 162 000 kWh in 2012. It expects that demand to grow to more than 1,3 million kWh by 2018, a CAGR of 42%. Fuel cell buses will drive demand for Li-ion batteries as well, but to a lesser degree. Pike Research estimates that they will require around 1 600 kWh in 2012, but will grow to 22 240 kWh by 2018.

 

More IEC standardization activities for electric urban transport

Electric urban transport systems depend also on standardization work from many other IEC TCs and their SCs, such as, TC 22: Power electronic systems and equipment, TC 36: Insulators; TC 40: Capacitors and resistors for electronic equipment; TC 47: Semiconductor devices, and obviously TC 69: Electric road vehicles and electric industrial trucks, to name only a few. Other TCs may be less obvious, such as TC 56: Dependability, which is involved in rolling stock-related standardization work. It maintains liaison activities with TC 9 and stresses that “without dependable products and services (…) transport [would be] non-functioning (…) there would be numerous car, train (…) accidents”.

“Down to Electric Avenue”

Wireless or induction charging technology to charge electric vehicles, including buses and light rail trains, is in use or undergoing testing in many countries, including South Korea, the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Italy.

Wireless charging plates built into the road at bus stops and terminals enable electric buses to be charged wirelessly through a brief connection while passengers get on or off the bus at a stop. This resolves the current battery limitations that prevent an all-electric bus from operating all day off an overnight charge. It would also mean the end of unsightly overhead cables to power trams and trolleybuses. There can be a loss of energy in the transfer, but tests using a light rail train in Germany in 2011 to demonstrate the technical capability of the system under actual conditions of daily operation indicated an efficiency rating above 90%.

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology say the transmitting technology they road tested supplied 180 kW of stable, constant power at 60 kHz to passing vehicles equipped with receivers, and they recorded 85% transmission efficiency. Installing similar chargers at busy traffic lights and junctions and in parking spaces could extend the technology to consumer electric cars.

There are concerns, however, about different competing wireless charging technologies, the costs of installing the infrastructure and its capacity to stand up to extreme weather. Meanwhile companies, notably in China and the USA, have developed ultra-fast charging technology capable of charging an electric bus battery in five to ten minutes.

Other features likely to be become standard in the electric buses of the future include regenerative charge braking, energy harvesting shock absorbers, solar panels and quickly replaceable battery packs.

These and other innovations in transportation and urban mobility are set to play a prominent part in “smart city” projects around the world, a technology market that Pike Research forecasts will be worth USD 20,2 billion annually by 2020.

Smart cities rise from the Gulf’s deserts

With urbanization on the increase around the world, just over half of the planet’s population now live in cities. They also produce 75% of carbon emissions worldwide. As urban populations have mushroomed during the last 50 years, “smart” information and communication technologies (ICTs) have led efforts to improve the efficiency of urban systems and services.

 

 Masdar City, UAE

The quest for sustainable urban development has led to the loosely defined concept of the “smart city” (also called “digital” or “connected” city). Although Europe and North America led the way in the 1980s and 90s, attention is turning to Asia and the Middle East, where the concept is gaining momentum and smart cities are being built from scratch.

This article was first published in The Middle East magazine, July/August 2012 issue.

Smart cities use ICT to build new or adapt existing infrastructure, buildings and systems to make better use of energy and resources in meeting the challenges of climate change, population growth, demographic change, urbanization and resource depletion, and contribute to reducing emissions while increasing living standards.

A 2011 report from Pike Research, a US firm that analyses global clean technology markets, forecast that investment in smart city technology infrastructure would total $108 billion in the decade from 2010 to 2020.  By the end of that period, annual spending will reach nearly $16 billion, Pike Research anticipates.

Ali al-Khulaifi, market development manager at ictQATAR, the country’s telecoms regulator and technology advocate, defines a smart city as an “intelligent ecosystem employing integrated technology to provide public and private services”. They tend to be long-term projects, usually taking between 5-10 years, which require significant investments.

In the Middle East, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have earmarked more than $63 billion over the next five years for development authorities, infrastructure companies, governmental and corporate entities to develop smart city projects.

At the Arab Future Cities Summit in Doha in April 2012, participants agreed on the importance of developing smart and sustainable cities in the Arab region, given that the majority of the population in the GCC region now live in cities.

While global corporate giants such as IBM, Cisco, Siemens and Orange look for their slice of the smart city pie, commentators also see social aspects such as investment in human and social capital and participatory governance as vital elements.

The GCC countries are leading the way in implementing smart infrastructure developments in the Middle East, lavishing vast sums in investment and funding for major projects such as Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, Lusail in Qatar and King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar, which currently has the highest per capita rate of CO2 emissions in the world, is investing billions in “green” building and solar technologies in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint.

Lusail, an extension to Doha, is intended to be Qatar’s biggest green field area once it is completed over the next 15 years. Extending across 38 sq. km, the new city includes four islands and 19 multi-purpose residential, mixed use, entertainment and commercial districts. As well as 200,000 permanent residents, it will have 170,000 employees and 80,000 daily commuters.  The promoters of the project describe Lusail as the “conscience of sustainable development”.

In Saudi Arabia, the ambition of Dubai property giant Emaar is to develop its $100 billion King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) project, taking shape 100 km north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah, into one of the world's most advanced smart cities.

The KAEC website paints a picture of “seamless integration of state-of-the-art infrastructure and advanced technology with business and public services”.

KAEC will include one of the largest ports in the world. It forms part of a $400 billion plan announced by the Saudi government in 2008 to make the kingdom less dependent on the oil industry and provide jobs and housing for the 10 million Saudis under the age of 17.

But it is Masdar City, 17 km from Abu Dhabi, which stands out as the Gulf’s current landmark smart city. The aim of the developers of the $22 billion project was to create the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city, with the emphasis on energy efficiency. The 36 sq. km city, designed by British architects Foster + Partners, incorporated renewable energy and clean technologies as part of its design.

There is a strong emphasis on natural cooling, with streets aligned to provide daytime shading, parks located to channel prevailing winds into the city, and traditional Arabic building principles such as wind towers. Exterior materials and windows were chosen to provide maximum cooling and reduce heat gain in buildings.

Construction began in 2008, and when it is completed in 2025 the city is expected to accommodate 40,000 residents and 50,000 daily commuters. Conventional cars have been replaced by public transport using electric pod cars.

Masdar City treats wastewater for landscaping, to reduce the need for desalination, and uses 54% less water than the average UAE city.

Its 10MW solar-power plant, the largest grid-connected plant of its kind in the Middle East, is designed to produce more electricity overall than the city consumes, with excess transferred to the national grid. By 2020, Abu Dhabi aims to generate at least 7% of its power needs from renewable sources.

Every electrical outlet in the city is monitored, and smart meters collect and continuously analyse data about power usage to provide an accurate "live" model of energy use.

Smart energy grids are vital to smart cities. They can reduce peak demand for electricity by providing information and incentives to consumers, allowing them to shift consumption to other periods.

Smart metering is key to the effective operation of smart energy grids. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Geneva-based global standards organization for all areas of electrotechnology, maintains that without accurate measurement it is not possible to demonstrate energy efficiency improvements credibly.

The UAE currently leads the smart meter market in the Middle East and North African region. A June 2012 report by Northeast Group, a Washington-based market intelligence firm, projected that MENA countries could save between $300 million and $1 billion every year by adopting smart grids to incorporate renewable energy sources, cope with rising demand and reduce energy losses on networks. The report predicted that capital spending in the MENA smart metering market would rise to $3.9 billion by 2022, with smart meters installed in 86% of homes in the Gulf.

But while conspicuous energy consumption remains a feature of Abu Dhabi, Masdar comes across more as a development project rather than an environmental one. And other regions of the world, such as Europe, are still ahead of the GCC in using real-time data systems to collect data on water and power usage and increase user awareness in environmentally friendly smart homes.

So, given the enormous financial resources of the Gulf states, why are there relatively few smart cities in development in the region?

Andrew Nusca, editor of the US-based website SmartPlanet, believes that while the Gulf states have considerable wealth, traditionally they have not been good at distributing it throughout the population or investing in public works projects that enable wealth generation. He told The Middle East: “By definition, the term ‘smart city’ denotes not just physical capital - infrastructure - but intellectual and social capital, too. That can't happen until the Gulf states begin to give their own people the tools to generate economic benefit for themselves and the state. That kind of progress takes generations to materialize, which is why we're only seeing the beginnings of this in the Middle East today.”