Traditionally, energy savings has been a driver for building management globally. Gradually, energy benefits are becoming secondary to operational efficiency and non-energy benefits such as occupancy analytics, air quality and worker productivity. In this sense, space utilization is becoming the significant differential metric particularly in the commercial building market. As employees increasingly work from home, facilities-management corporates must come up with ways to address the shrinking workforce and growing oversupply of office space. As a result, data-driven solutions which can optimize the productivity metric have been gaining increasing momentum to address costly underutilized space.

For example, IoT sensors in combination with SaaS platforms are helping to power dynamic workspace strategies, by identifying where employees are best situated to work at any specific moment. This space sensing analytics, developed by Vergesense, applied in the HVAC market, could allow the monitoring in order to identify if space should be heated, cooled, ventilated, etc. Another example of this type of technologies would be the software application for heating and cooling systems developed by Comfy. It allows creating a zone-level optimization of space conditioning and occupant control in commercial buildings, varying temperatures based on space utilisation and allowing savings between 15-20% on energy bills. Last example would be ThoughtWire’s digital twins based on data from people, process and the physical built environment, for hospital buildings digitalization. This tool enables the improvement of patient outcomes with a data model of a hospital’s building systems, clinical and IT systems, IoT devices, workflows and people occupancy data.

Regarding the adoption of energy-efficient technologies for street lighting, the use of light-emitting diode (LED) street lighting is one of the preferred options, offering reductions in the energy bills, improve lighting quality for public safety and meeting climate, environmental and efficiency goals. Another well-known option is selling the light assets through buyback programs, so the cities can invest in upgrades. Local governments recognize that street lights represent digital real estate that serves as a platform for new technologies and can help them evolve into smart cities. Dispersed throughout the city, street lights can also act as data command posts capable of gathering and conveying city data such as air quality, traffic and noise levels. Offering the infrastructure for these services could improve the revenue streams by providing new services as electric vehicle charging infrastructure dispersed throughout the city, wireless communication services, real-time video for monitoring traffic and weather, etc.

Main stakeholders doing R&D: Neolux, Lumenia, ATP, Siemens, Cleantech Group, L&T Technology Services, Exalto Energy & Innovation, Owens Corning and Cree Inc.

Main stakeholders in the market: Eléctricas Hermanos Campos S.L. Campos Eléctricas, Sernoven S.L., Veolia, Robert Bosch, Electronics Trafic S.A., Quetzal Ingeniería, Azigrene Consultores, Cumulus City, Generval, Schreder Socelec, ESS Bioconsulting, Eiffage Energía, Lyopro