IoT Accelerates the Green Tech Industry | Symmetry Blog
About Savannah Cuthbert
When you think of green technology or “clean tech”, the first thing that comes to mind is utilizing technology to make the world a cleaner and more sustainable place. While this is the case, the terminology also refers to a broader set of benefits that positively impact a variety of markets. Green tech utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide for a cleaner environment, all while unlocking process efficiencies, reducing costs, minimizing the use of natural resources, improving safety, extending the life of assets, and more.
Common Green Tech Use Cases
Through the combined capabilities of IoT, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), impressive green technologies have emerged across the following industries and beyond:
- Renewable Energy: Wind, solar, and hydropower are sustainable energy sources that omit the use of fossil fuels. Through the installation of IoT sensors and gateways, renewable energy power plants can be monitored remotely, thus minimizing the need for excessive human intervention.
- Manufacturing: Manufacturing facilities are adopting green tech practices by installing process efficiencies and automation into their operations. Some factories are even utilizing renewable energy to power their machinery and are thus reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally, remote asset tracking is beneficial and sustainable for the environment.
- Agriculture: Green tech is prominent in agriculture, as farmers are able to utilize IoT sensors to wirelessly track weather conditions, crops, and livestock. Additionally, farmers can automate their watering, fertilizing, and feeding processes and thus reduce unnecessary travel to the farm and the use of excess resources.
- Smart Home: Homeowners are able to benefit from green tech through utilizing electric vehicles and charging stations. Additionally, installing sensor based IoT solutions like a smart thermostat or smart sprinklers can increase efficiencies and reduce costs.
Green Tech Meets Edge Cloud Computing
Many green tech solutions utilize edge computing to benefit from its inherent benefits. Edge computing allows for the computation and storage of data to take place locally, as opposed to routing back and forth between a centralized cloud service or data center. Although some use cases require data to be stored and processed at a data center, edge computing helps improve efficiencies, reduce latency, enhance security, decrease costs, and allow for continuous operation even in a power outage. These benefits not only apply to businesses and governments in a variety of applications, but product developers who are producing green tech solutions as well.
Interested in getting involved with green tech? Consult with Symmetry Electronics’ Applications Engineers to discover sensors, embedded radios, gateways, and cellular routers that best suit your application.
Find out more from the What Is Clean Tech and How Is IoT Enabling It? blog from Digi International.