Panasonic to build 'sustainable smart town' in Japan by the year 2014

The people of Japan may be some of the most energy conscious in the world, and now Panasonic, with the help of eight partner companies, is looking to make them even greener. The project, which would as much re-building as it would be building, aims to turn on of Panasonic's former factory sites into a green smart town.

The town will sit on 47-acres and have roughly 1,000-homes. The city will be named Fujisawa City and it will be found in the Kanagawa Prefecture. If the town turns out to be as energy conscious as the designers hope it could become a prototype for future energy efficient cities across Japan and the world.

The idea behind this design is not to simply pair down everything found in a modern city to make it more energy efficient, but to pair power saving devices and infrastructure with power generating systems, such as solar panels in order to create a town that is both ecologically sustainable and easy to live in. The town is expected, not to show off any new innovative technology but to show how by layering existing green technologies they can work in unison and create a sustainable urban environment.

The city will even be designed with the use of electric cars in mind. The system will also pair this technology with a network of sensors that help to control the use of public resources, such as lighting, to reduce the use of power when it is not needed.

The city is expected to begin accepting residents in March of 2014 and be filled up by 2018.

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