How Urban Planners Are Integrating Alternative Energy Technologies

With the looming climate and energy challenges of the 21st century, cities worldwide are banding together to transition toward a climate-first approach. As major cities occupy just 3% of the earth’s land while accounting for 70% of the world’s energy consumption and 75% of its carbon emissions, the fight for a green future begins and ends with sustainable urban planning.

But increasing energy use efficiency, reliability, and sustainability within urban environments is no simple feat. It requires a total reimagining of urban design, planning, and development.

For that, local governments must take the necessary steps to integrate both existing and emerging alternative energy technologies at the neighborhood level. So today, we’ll extend the discussion to show you what that model looks like.

What Is Sustainable Urban American Planning?

In 1987, the United Nations first broadly defined sustainable urban planning as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The term has since evolved to encompass many eco-friendly development practices, which urban planners can leverage to address social, environmental, and economic sustainability issues in their cities.

Some of the common characteristics of sustainable urban areas l include:

• Accessible and green public transportation – Since the transportation industry accounts for 29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S., reliable and cost-efficient green infrastructure is critical to making transportation accessible to every citizen.
• Walking and biking paths – The less reliant the public is on transportation, the better. As the ITDP notes, this helps create “the most efficient and healthful combination of mobility modes, at the lowest financial and environmental cost, and with the highest resilience to disruptive events.”
• Waste management – Instead of simply throwing waste into a landfill, cities must aim to create circular disposal processes, such as recycling, composting, and energy recovery.
• Open and green spaces – Modern land use planning focuses on leaving room for green spaces like parks. Leaving open spaces allows communities to come together for rest, relaxation, and outdoor activities.
• Vehicle charging stations – Cities that construct and integrate charging stations can incentivize the widespread adoption of EVs. More EVs mean fewer carbon emissions and less reliance on carbon-based fuels.
• Sustainable buildings – There are five factors that impact a building’s energy performance within an urban environment:
  • Urban climate
  • Urban morphology
  • Building physics
  • Heating ventilation and air-conditioning
  • Occupant behavior

Sustainable regional planning means that developers must take steps to increase the energy efficiency of buildings and districts. This is achieved by adopting sustainable technologies, materials, and building practices.

Why Is Sustainable Urban Planning Important?

Sustainable urban and regional planning isn’t just about beautification – it’s about creating a greener future.

At its essence, the fundamental goal of sustainable urban planning is to build a city system that enriches the lives of all its inhabitants.

For that to occur, leaders must rethink what it means to bring people, buildings, and public spaces together. When both communities and natural systems can operate within healthy and sustainable environments, you can expect several benefits, including:

• Reduced pollution thanks to green technologies and less traffic
• Easier navigation around the city, whether on foot, bike, car, or rail
• Lowered stress due to noise, pollution, and traffic reduction
• Increased biodiversity of plant life and animals
• Better health outcomes due to cleaner air and safer environments
• Cooler cities created by reducing the urban heat island effect
• Greater social integration as citizens of all social strata are included
• Optimized resource management, especially energy and water consumption
• Increased real estate values when cities are more attractive places to live

All of these advantages contribute toward improving the welfare of people and their communities. And by addressing many pressing issues facing humanity—like poverty and climate change—you can prevent human, social, and economic losses.

The result? Healthier, happier citizens.

Popular Renewable Energy Technologies

Today, there are dozens of existing and emerging technologies that modern urban planners are incorporating into all levels of their social and environmental design, including the following.

Circular Economies

Although not a technology in and of itself, moving from a linear to a circular economy is a green philosophy influencing urban production and consumption for the better. Its underlying purpose is to improve the use of finite resources. This includes closing resource flow loops by recovering materials and reducing waste and pollution through innovation.

Solar Panels

Solar energy is the most common and abundant resource on earth. Solar panels—placed on buildings, carports, parking lots, and rooftops—capture and convert that energy, significantly contributing to a city's energy grid.

Solar Thermal Systems

In the move toward zero energy buildings (ZEB), solar thermal systems play an essential role in hot water production. These technologies can either be added to the building’s facade or form part of the structure itself. Such technologies encompass different types of solar hardware like:

• Solar thermal collectors
• Photovoltaic (PV) panels
• Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal (PVT) panels

Thermal heating and cooling

Cities need to be livable all year round. Thermal heating and cooling technologies design schemes help maximize heat capture and recovery during the winter while promoting circulation and cooling effects in the summer—all without wasting energy.

Green Roofs

By adding living foliage, plants, and trees to rooftops and the sides of buildings, urban planners can reduce a building’s carbon footprint and decrease the urban heat island effect, which leads to lower city-wide temperatures.

Horizontal Elevators

Although this is still considered a developing technology, the future of elevators is cable-free. These new elevators are powered by linear motors, which enable horizontal and vertical mobility. For example, horizontal elevators have already been used in Dubai to connect skyscrapers via sky bridges.

Off-Grid Housing

New self-sustaining communities and housing developments are being designed to be completely independent of the city’s energy grid. For instance, in 2022, Three Harbour Green was listed as Vancouver’s first ultra-luxury, self-sustaining penthouse.

Alternative Waste Solutions

Instead of letting “waste be waste,” sustainably developed cities are pushing toward centralized waste-to-energy systems. Processes like composting, material recovery, and residual management contribute to a broader circular economy, especially regarding materials like paper, food, and plastic.

Cleaner Mobility

In addition to electric vehicles—such as CNG buses, subways, trolleys, and cabs—intelligent transport systems and services can increase transport efficiency, reduce emissions, and prevent traffic.

FASTECH: Your Neighborhood Experts in Alternative Energy

Sustainability is the key to healthier, happier, and more inclusive communities. And alternative energy technologies are at the centerfold of this transformation.

At FASTECH, we’re experts in alternative energy solutions, technologies, and design. Whether it’s construction, consulting, maintenance, or testing and compliance, our team has helped municipalities and public organizations transition toward a sustainable urban development strategy.

If you’re interested in dexterous alternative fueling solutions, we can help you build the energy systems and infrastructure that power sustainable cities. Contact us today to learn more.