Technology
Smart City presents energy-efficiency assessments
By MaltaMedia News
Sep 4, 2008 - 4:45:16 PM

In a statement on Thursday, SmartCity Malta said that it has invested in and carried out an exhaustive and professional Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which has been submitted to, and accepted by MEPA.

The EIA has also been submitted to all regulatory authorities, Local Councils and NGOs for their review and comments. The submission of the EIA is an integral part of the complete statutory planning process which was observed by the company.

The next step of this process is the holding of a public hearing following which the EIA will be concluded. This preparatory process has spread over a period of nearly two years and is now in its final stages. All the impacts and mitigation measures included in the Assessment have been arrived at following extensive studies carried out by internationally reputable experts. The commissioning of these experts was the result of a significant investment made by SmartCity Malta as part of the impact assessment process, prior to commencing development.

In parallel with this exercise, SmartCity Malta has also invested in a Traffic Impact Statement to clearly assess the necessary upgrades to roads and junctions leading to the township.

The infrastructure requirements and plans for SmartCity were developed by the leading international firm Mouchel (www.mouchel.com). Mouchel computed the energy requirements for SmartCity Malta at 41.2 MW. The EIA provides a detailed breakdown of these requirements.

This requirement is the result of significant energy-efficiency measures included in the design process of the project. Moreover, that the EIA is based on the principle of 'Worst-case scenario', since the impacts of the worst possible situation have to be taken into consideration.

“It is unlikely that the full load of 41.2 MW would be eventually used. However, the supply capacity to the project has to be in line with this requirement to ensure that if such demand is actually required then the national infrastructure would not be failing the project.” the statement said.

It is pertinent to keep constantly in mind that sufficient and redundant uninterruptable power supply is a fundamental requirement for the attraction of ICT and media business to Malta. This is a hard fact.

SmartCity Malta said that “serious ICT and Media businesses will not be attracted to a business park which has a questionable degree of power supply. All competing jurisdictions in this field recognize this and in any case exclude all possibilities of not providing sufficient supply of electricity to an ICT and Media cluster which will employ thousands of knowledge-workers.”

The attraction of foreign direct investment is a highly competitive and dynamic environment which, in the current global economic climate, requires the convergence of all the stakeholders’ efforts into a single direction.

SmartCity Malta is developing the project in line with the international LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency Development) standards, which is a first in the development sector in Malta.

The adoption of these standards within the SmartCity township has required a significant investment being made to make sure the sustainability element of the project is not only promoted but also put into actual practice. This is in accordance with the sustainability leadership role which TECOM Investments has assumed in Dubai and practices throughout all its entities, including nine TECOM Business Parks such as: Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Dubai Knowledge Village.    



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