In Yogyakarta I “celebrated” New Year and continued the road trip on new years day. In Solo I met the mayor of the city and stayed for the night in the jungle.
(the video is in lower resolution as internet speeds are too slow here, couldnt upload the high-res one).
The energetic city of Yogyakarta was full of surprises. I was invited by princess of Yogya who then invited me to her Wildlife Research Center, I spotted many Electric Cars in the city and visited historical sights. The energetic city of Yogyakarta was full of surprises. I was invited by princess of Yogya who then invited me to her Wildlife Research Center, I spotted many Electric Cars in the city and visited historical sights.
From Pontianak I took a ferry to Java. A typical Asian ferry…
After 640 something days I reached the Equator! And Indonesia, the 31st country.
After 4 days in Brunei I headed back to Sarawak where adventure was awaiting.
Without any money or a host I arrived in Borneo. I was desperately looking for a place to stay and the Bruneians turned out the be sweet and hospitable. Full adventure in the latest video.
Finally the car arrived from West Malaysia and I could continue the roadtrip. This time I am exploring the island of Brunei and pass by Brunei. Watch it in the latest video.
Hard work has seemed to payed off. After a long stay in Malaysia and Singapore I can continue the journey. Watch the progress in the latest video.
The second week in Singapore I visited an urban garden, the BMW iPerformance launch, spoke with the CEO of Singapore Electric Vehicles about his business and met Joe. Joe was the first one the import a Tesla Model S into the country and encountered huge problems. See it in the latest video.
On the edge of the desert in Dubai an unique property is arising. Diamond Developers’ The Sustainable City is a residential area and designed to be net zero-energy. Quite an accomplishment when you know Dubai’s energy consumption is one of the highest in the world and with temperatures around 50 degrees celsius in the summer definitely not tempting to turn of the airconditioning. Yet the developers found that the costs of building are lower as compared to traditional properties.
Powered by solar
40.000 megawatt hour solar energy is generated daily by 40.000 solar panels, fitted on the carparks and all the homes. The city was turend on less then a year ago and already during the first winter net-zero was realised.
https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/videos/707654866110245/
Holistic approach
Unique about the Sustainable City is that it not only looks at the traditional sustainable aspects like water, energy, waste and cooling (which all are handled well) but focusses on three key aspects: social, economic & environmental sustainability. The commercial mall which is home to various shops, a nursery, supermarket and cafe’s are all partly owned by the residents. With this business model they don’t need to pay for maintenance & service fees, costs which easily can go sky-high Dubai.
Electric Vehicles
Electric cars are also part of cities masterplan to later become carbon neutral. Residents are pushed to go electric by offering them a 40.000 Dirham (€10.000) incentive on the purchase of their first electric vehicle.
The property is car-free. Cars can be left behind (while charging on solar power) at the carpark from where electric buggy’s transport residents through the city.
Building a city like this doesn’t come without challenges. In below’s interview with Karim El-Jisr, Director of the Sustainable city he explains the hurdles they needed to take and goes more in depth in the various sustainable aspects.
