社区的未来

    尽管日本在高科技领域里声誉卓著，但它却拥有富裕国家中最不智能的一些住宅和社区。

    极其缺乏智能的电网把电力输送到街边难看的电线杆上，连接住宅的电线松松垮垮，暴露在外，很少或根本没有进行绝热处理。日本盛行“一次性”文化，住宅和办公楼被视为最经久耐用的物品，但日本建筑的平均寿命也只有30年。免费的公共WiFi和自行车或汽车共享（智能社区的支柱）像黄油寿司那样罕见。如今，由于福岛核危机导致日本的两座核电站停止运营，这个国家正在以只能用猛烈来形容的速度使用化石燃料来发电。

    受“智能社区”热潮影响的技术专家和科技公司表示，这些很快就会成为历史。智能社区是减少碳排放、改善居民生活水平的一条途径，但缺乏智能社区的问题同时困扰着发达和发展中国家。日本东北部大地震的震波已经促使该国的官僚精英们宣布，他们终于开始重视城市规划，为社区和企业提供可持续的电力。“智能社区是最重要的方面之一，”日本经济产业省（METI）智能社区政策办公室（Smart Community Policy Office）的裕太榊说。“这个市场在增长，政府将继续支持各地发展智能社区。”

    按照定义来说，“智能社区”就是由能够高效地生产和使用电力的住宅、楼房和其他建筑物所组成的网络。通过使用可再生能源、最大程度降低能耗为特征的下一代基础设施，同时依靠IT网络把住宅、商务楼和运输系统连接起来，实现能效的提高。

    松下（Panasonic）有望率先在今年从无到有率先建起一座“智能城镇”。这个项目名为“藤泽生态智能社区”，建在东京和富士山之间的一个旧工厂用地上，造价为600亿日圆。由于日本本土的电力巨头们处境艰难，这类项目希望可以吸引到海外的兴趣和订单。这类项目是否是可持续生活的有效模式？现在就给出答案还为时尚早。

    为了将常规碳排放减少70%，藤泽生态智能社区项目将通过用燃料电池发电机来为住宅供电、共享电动汽车、把智能电器融入使用IT技术的当地智能电网等措施来节约电力。这个项目堪称日本智能生活的橱窗。但东京应庆大学（Keio University）环境创新者计划（Environmental Innovators Program）的负责人威廉•加洛韦教授说，日本到目前为止提供的东西不足称道，只是面子工程而已。

    他说：“日本目前没有开展具有重大变革意义的项目。坦白地说，这一点令我很吃惊。考虑到最近这次灾难的规模，以及我们在东京所看到的能源基础设施的那种脆弱性，日本的这类项目应该比我们看到的多得多才对。”

    由于数十年来严重依赖垄断企业提供的核电，以及对开发商的自由放任态度（除了抗震性法规），日本在打造智能社区方面还有很长的路要走。这个市场只会继续增长。

    Despite its high-tech reputation, Japan has some of the dumbest homes and communities among rich nations.

    Profoundly unintelligent electricity grids deliver power down streets of unsightly utility poles and their sagging, exposed electric lines to homes with little or no thermal insulation. Housing and offices themselves are regarded as the ultimate in throwaway culture -- the average life span of a building in Japan is 30 years. Free public Wi-Fi and bike or car sharing -- pillars of smart communities -- are as rare as buttered sushi. And now that all but two of the nation's nuclear power stations are offline, following the Fukushima crisis, Japan is burning fossil fuels to generate power at a rate that can only be described as drastic.

    But all this will be history soon, say technocrats and tech firms bitten by the same "smart communities" bug that has both developed and developing countries in its thrall as a way to cut emissions, improve the lives of citizens and, while they are at it, the bottom line. The shockwaves from the Tohoko earthquake have also goaded the country's bureaucratic elite to announce they are finally to get serious about urban planning and sustainably powering communities and businesses. "The smart community is one of the most important sectors," says Yuta Sakaki of the Smart Community Policy Office part of Japan's trade and industry ministry, METI. "The market is growing, and the government will continue to support municipalities to promote it."

    Basically, depending on the definition, "smart communities" are networks of houses, buildings and other structures that efficiently produce and consume electricity. Characterised by the use of renewables and minimizing energy consumption, next-generation infrastructure will, the idea goes, connect homes and commercial buildings and transportation over IT networks to enable energy efficiency.

    Ahead of the pack, Panasonic is on course to finish a "smart town" from scratch this year, built on an old factory site between Tokyo and Mount Fuji at a cost of ¥60 billion. With Japan's electronic titans floundering badly, it is hoped such projects might attract interest and orders from abroad, but so far it's too early yet to say if Fujisawa and its like will be an effective model for sustainable living.

    In a bid to reduce normal carbon emissions by 70%, there will be fuel cell generators for homes at Fujisawa, electric-car sharing, and smart appliances rigged to a local smart grid using IT to save power. It's a showcase for what Japan is capable of smart living-wise. But according to William Galloway, professor and leader of the Environmental Innovators Program at Tokyo's Keio University, what the country is offering so far is low-bore -- mere window dressing.

    "There are no big transformative projects in the works just yet in Japan. Which is to me, frankly, amazing. Given the scale of the recent disaster, and the kind of vulnerability we saw even in Tokyo of the energy infrastructure, there should be many more projects on the board than we are seeing," he says.

    With decades of reliance of nuclear power supplied by monopolies and a laissez-faire attitude toward developers outside of earthquake resistance regulations, Japan has a lot of catching up to do in the building-smart arena. The market can but grow.