Babcock Ranch, the brainchild of Kitson and Partners, seems at first to be more like a science fiction fantasy than the plan for building an actual city.  The plan for this city is for it to be powered entirely by renewable solar energy.  We are talking an entire city complete with homes, businesses, schools, municipal buildings and everything else needed for city life, not just a subdivision or small community.

Babcock Ranch is not like other future city plans, this one is expected to begin building this year.  The current national emphasis on using renewable energy to power everything from cars to skyscrapers coming together neatly with the start of this project.

Since the city will be in built in South Florida where sunlight is plentiful, producing adequate amounts of solar energy won’t be a problem.  Because it is being built in southern Florida all buildings and infrastructure will be built to stringent standards to withstand hurricanes.

Babcock Ranch will have the largest on-site solar plant of any city in the world.  The solar plant will cost over $300 million.  The city will be using photovoltaic  (PV) solar cells that convert the suns energy straight in to electricity.  Because the power plant will not require power to run, all the power collected can be dispersed throughout the city through integrated Smart Grid technology.

Smart Grid technology will allow all buildings to be monitor energy usage in real time while allowing the programming of many functions to run at off peak hours.  Homes and businesses that have their own solar arrays, will also feed energy back into the grid and lowering bills even more.

Adding to the efficiency of a city using Smart Grid technology, all homes will incorporate the latest energy saving technology that is on the market.  All buildings will be equipped with Smart Home technology to power the families needs most efficiently.

The city will also have green roofs on most of the downtown buildings improving the air quality and adding to the ambiance.  Attractive vertical windmills will also be in evidence both as additional energy sources and as decoration.

Vehicles will be electric vehicles.  Power stations will be built as a part of the cities basic infrastructure.  Again these power stations will run on solar energy costing next to nothing to use.  Having power stations already built in the underlying plans for the city ensures that the stations will be easy to find and use.

Street lights, stop lights, parking garage gates, and anything else that you can possibly conceive of using electricity in a city will be run from solar power.  Imagine sporting events where the score boards are run off of stored power from the sun and you

Every existing city is at a disadvantage in part because all clean energy facilities are add-ons feeding into antiquated  technology and electrical grids.  Most systems will still contain energy produced by less efficient and dirtier methods.

Babcock Ranch will not simply be renovating and upgrading an older less efficient system, it will be building a city of the future where green energy is the norm, the technology dispersing it is the latest and best and the buildings, vehicles and infrastructure using it will be the most efficient possible.

As with everything else these days, the creation of Babcock Ranch requires access to credit and investment by businesses and individuals excited about the project.  The current economy could very easily cause building this city to be postponed until credit loosens up and the market heads firmly into more positive territory.

Hopefully this city will continue on schedule creating a true city of the future today.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 7:02 pm under Green Technology, Science and technology.

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