siemens_pof_rio+20

www.siemens.com/pof

Pictures of the FutureSpecial Edition Rio+20 | 2012

Formulas for Efficiency

The Next Economy

Sharing a Brighter Future

Technologies that cut demandfor energy and resources

The changing structure of the global value chain

More quality of life for everyone

Paths to a SustainableWorld

Pictures of the Future | Editorial

The United Nations Conference on Sus-tainable Development (Rio+20) comes

at a crucial time. The recent crises have ex-posed a lack of sustainable thinking notonly with regards to energy policy. Afterpolitical upheaval, economic downturnsand environmental disasters in the pastyears our challenges seem bigger thanever. Some might go as far as to say thatduring the last decades we have failed inour aim to make this planet more sustain-able. But is it true?

Barbara Kux is a Member of the

Managing Board of Siemens AG

and is the company’s Chief

Sustainability Officer.

companies can step in to fill the technologygap. Siemens, for example, has continuous-ly invested in research and developmentover the years to provide state of the artproducts and solutions that help reduceCO2 emissions and the consumption of re-sources. As a consequence the companycan make a significant contribution to cre-ating a more sustainable world, for exam-ple by supporting Germany and other coun-tries to reach its sustainability targets.

Thus, the research and development ofglobal companies like Siemens are keywhen dealing with environmental threatslike climate change. Siemens is an excellentexample: today we have research centersacross the globe, and our innovative prod-ucts and ideas come from Germany, othereuropean countries, the U.S. and also fromcountries like India, China and Brazil. This iswhy today, our technological capacity tobuild a more sustainable future has neverbeen stronger, and our understanding ofthe challenges we face has never beenclearer.

This is what we will be dealing with: By2050 the world’s population will rise to ap-proximately 10 billion people, forcing us todeal with resources in a more efficient way.Substantial improvements will be necessaryto face food crises, water shortages, or se-vere climate change. The importance of ac-tion is clear. The business case for greaterenergy and resource efficiency is strong —this is what we must promote more effec-tively. Gatherings like the Rio+20 Confer-ence are an important forum for this.

This is what we can do: There are count-less ways for us to make a difference, in-cluding small-scale solutions, technologicalbreakthroughs, changes in our behavior,and by embracing innovations that actuallysave us money. And many of these tech-nologies are already available today. Someof these innovative ideas and products willbe on display at Rio+20.

If there is one message to be heeded, itis this: We can act now so we must act now!If governments, private sector companiesand non-governmental organizations suc-cessfully close ranks to create a sustainableworld, we have a perfect blueprint of thefuture.

Let us continue to move forward togeth-er, pulling in the same direction with acommon sense of purpose and commit-ment.

This conference is an important oppor-tunity with regards to what we can achieveand the impetus and inspiration it can giveto us all. But it is up to us to take these in-spiring ideas and apply them.

Cover: In June 2012, experts and politi-cians attending the Earth Summit in Riode Janeiro will discuss how the worldcould be made more sustainable. Medicalequipment for native villages in Brazil’sAmazon basin illustrates Siemens’ commitment to the principles of Rio+20.

Twenty years ago when the world cametogether here in Rio de Janeiro at the firstUnited Nations Conference on Environmentand Development (UNCED), we left with aclear vision and sense of purpose. The RioDeclaration from 1992 established someambitious goals, for example the eradica-tion of poverty, and protecting our planetby eliminating armed conflicts and warfare.And although skeptics might argue thatprogress on some of these fronts has beenslower than many of us had hoped, therehave also been some impressive advances.

Nowadays, cooperation between coun-tries in the development and application ofsustainable technologies is indeed strongerthan ever before. Moreover, something sig-nificant has changed for the better: as a re-sponse to the crises governments and busi-nesses have realized that a new sustainablearchitecture was needed.

Germany for example has been particu-larly courageous in its response to theearthquake and Tsunami in Fukushima withtheir devastating effects on Japan. Like noother country it devoted itself to radicallyreshaping its energy policy in the name ofsustainability: By 2050 Germany wants toreduce CO2 emissions 80 percent below1990 levels, increase the relative share ofrenewable energy in gross energy con-sumption to 60 percent, and cut primaryenergy consumption by 50 percent com-pared to 2008.

So, there are two lessons to be learned:Firstly, where there is a crisis there is an op-portunity and secondly, sustainability canonly be achieved through a joint effort.

When governments create favorablebusiness conditions for the development ofsustainable products and solutions, private

A Vision of Sustainabilityfor the 21st Century

2 Pictures of the Future | Special Edition Rio+20

Pictures of the Future | Special Edition Rio+20 3



Features

10 Scenario 2035

Let the Games Begin!

112 Trends

Efficiency Is the Key

15 Energy Efficiency in China

Sustainability Boom

18 Interviews: Powering China’s Dream

Prof. Li Junfeng, Prof. Du Xiangwan, and

Dr. Shi Zhengrong on the Future of

China’s Energy Supplies

20 Facts and Forecasts

Growing Market for Energy

Efficiency Technologies

22 Germany’s New Energy Policy

A Complex Puzzle

24 Wind Power

Lower Prices in the Air

27 Combined Cycle Gas Turbines

Record-Setting Power Plant

29 Load Management

Buildings that Change their Behavior

31 Electrolysis

Hydrogen: The Most Versatile Fuel

34 Scenario 2035

King Customer

36 Trends

The New Global Economy

39 Project Financing

Solid Partnerships

40 Innovation in Brazil

Sugar, Oil and Inventive Minds

42 Interview: Brito Cruz and Ozires Silva

Research and Development in Brazil

44 Oil and Gas Production

The Call of the Deep

47 Investing in Latin America

Full Steam Ahead

49 Hospital Economics

Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin,

Texas is a perfect example of efficient

Technologies

50 Facility Planning in India

Sweet Spot Science

52 Urban Planning

City in a Digital Nutshell

54 Traffic Systems

How IT Can Boost Capacity

58 Scenario 2035

Energy Comes Home

60 Trends

Tapping New Sources of Hope

63 Safe Water Kiosk

Mobile Solution for a Thirsty World

64 Wind in Mali

Do-it-Yourself Power

66 WE!Hub in Africa

A Glimmer of Hope for Lake Victoria

68 Photovoltaics in Mexico’s Mountains

New Lives with Light

70 Waste Recycling in Bolivia

From Trash to Cash

71 Mobile Medics

Tracking Illnesses in India

73 Healthcare

No One Left Behind

75 Healthcare in a Rain Forest

Clinic under the Palms

78 Citizen Participation

Let’s Make a Deal!

4 Short Takes

News from Siemens’ Labs

8 Sustainable Development | Rio+20

Rekindling the Spirit of 1992

82 Feedback

83 Recommendation

Pictures of the Future | Contents

The Next Economy

The statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro is now more efficiently illuminated thanks to LEDs.

A t night, with its arms outstretched, it seems tofloat high above Rio de Janeiro. And recently the

glow it casts over the city has been even brighter andmore colorful. The city’s 30-meter-high statue of“Cristo Redentor” has been illuminated with LED pro-jectors from Osram since March 2011.

The monumental statue was erected 80 years agoat a height of 710 meters, on Mount Corcovado,which, along with the Sugarloaf, is one of the most im-pressive peaks in the city. In the past, the statue was il-luminated in a wasteful way. The lights that wereplaced around it in the surrounding jungle consumed74 kilowatts (kW). The 300 new projectors that Osraminstalled together with its subsidiary Traxon — at nocost to the city — now consume a maximum of 17.2kW. Each of them combines the light of 27 or 36 LEDs.This technology not only saves energy but also gener-ates less heat than conventional light bulbs — a fea-ture that benefits plants and animals.

A further advantage is the fact that the projectorsfocus their light even more precisely, with the help ofspecial lenses. This makes it possible to illuminate indi-vidual parts of the statue, such as the left or righthands, the heart or the head. Thanks to the use of dif-ferent colored LEDs, it is now also possible to changecolors faster to create different moods; this was previ-ously done by placing different colored foils in front ofthe lights by hand. This opens up new possibilities forlight shows, according to light designer Peter Gasper,who is the artistic director of the new system. “It usedto be a laborious task, and sometimes entirely impossi-ble, to change the mood lighting of the monument,”he says. “But with the new projectors we can adjust thelighting quickly and easily.”

Light in the Night

Pictures of the Future | Short Takes


Siemens and the Allgäuer Überlandwerk (AÜW) energy company in Kempten, Ger-many, are testing a smart grid in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University and

the Kempten University of Applied Sciences. The joint “Integration of Renewable En-ergy and Electric Mobility” (Irene) project, which is scheduled to run for two years, isbeing funded by Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Technology. The project’sgoal is to intelligently integrate and operate the numerous photovoltaic units, windturbines, and biogas facilities that AÜW has linked into the grid. A self-organizing en-ergy automation system from Siemens will make this possible. Thanks to software re-cently developed by the company, it will be possible to improve energy distributionplanning and coordination and thus to operate the grid more efficiently. As part ofthe project, a charging infrastructure will be established for electric vehicles, whichwill be able to utilize electricity produced in an environmentally-friendly manner — for example, from photovoltaic units. For instance, as compo-nents of the smart grid, they would store surplus electricity and subsequently return it to the grid during periods of peak demand. Participatingcompanies see the project as a win-win situation. Consumers will save money through changed energy consumption habits and energy supplierswill be able to market their electricity more efficiently.

Win-Win Energy


The area near the Royal Victoria light railway station has seen betterdays. In the 19th century, this part of East London was one of the

city’s leading trade centers because of the shipping industry. Goodssuch as wood, rubber, wool, and sugar were unloaded here. But afterthe docks were closed, the area experienced a period of prolonged de-cline. Recently, however, this former industrial wasteland has been ex-periencing a revival. One of the world’s most prominent financial cen-ters has sprung up on the opposite bank of the Thames, at CanaryWharf. Not far from there is the O2 entertainment center, better knownas the former Millennium Dome. The 2012 Olympics will bring numer-ous brandnew buildings, thus further improving the neighborhood.What’s more, the Royal Victoria station will soon acquire a striking newneighbor that will represent the area’s urban and economic renewal — aconference, exhibition, and office building on the waterfront, called theCrystal. It is being built by Siemens and will open its doors to the publicin summer of 2012. The Crystal will be home to the world's largest exhi-bition focused on urban sustainability, bringing together city decisionmakers and the public. The building’s office areas are expected to useonly a third of the energy that would be used in a conventional building.This very high level of energy efficiency will be the result of cutting-edge architecture and intelligent technology. Ground source heatpumps will cool or heat the building throughout the year. Intelligentbuilding management technology and energy-efficient devices such asLED lamps will do their part to save enormous amounts of electricity.The facade will provide high levels of natural daylight while being ther-mally efficient to keep heat in during the winter and out during thesummer. Photovoltaic panels covering the roof will help power thebuilding; rainwater harvesting will provide water for bathrooms and

landscape irrigation surrounding the site. Thus the center will not onlyinform visitors about the numerous possibilities of sustainable urban de-velopment, but will also be a living demonstration of the same. The newcentre will be at the heart of London’s new Green Enterprise District, anarea designed to attract low-carbon businesses amongst others. Suchcompanies provide products and services that generate low CO2 emis-sions or help to reduce emissions. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,explains, “We envisage the District as a vibrant international hub incu-bating dozens of low-carbon businesses to transform what have histori-cally been some of the poorest parts of the capital.” This neighborhood,which has experienced both the highs and the lows of the coal-drivenindustrial revolution, will now host the urban spaces of the future. Thearea will offer a home to companies that earn money by conserving en-ergy rather than wasting it.

Top Efficiency in the Docklands

The city of the future will be on display in an energy-efficient Siemens building in London’s Docklands.

Pictures of the Future | Short Takes


The wind blows softly over the rich green hills that dot the countrysidearound the small coastal town of Strangford in County Down,

Northern Ireland. Just a few steps away is the natural port of StrangfordLough — a deep-blue harbor that today fully lives up to its Celtic nameCuan, which means “the calm bay.” Nevertheless, large dark wavessometimes rip through the harbor. It’s therefore no coincidence thatStrangford was called “the powerful fjord” by the Vikings who oncesettled there. The bay is 30 kilometers long and its total area of 150square kilometers makes it the largest in the Irish Sea. It not onlycontains picturesque fishing boots but also a black and red steel towerthat protrudes out of the water just off the coastline. This tower is partof SeaGen — the world’s first commercial tidal current power plant.The facility, which began operating in 2008, produces 1.2 megawatts(MW) of electricity solely from the power of the tides. That’s enough tosupply a town of 1,500 households.

Tidal flows represent a largely untapped source of clean energy. Thisunderutilization is due to the fact that the technology has remained inthe development phase up until now, and installing it offshore is veryexpensive. Nevertheless, its potential is huge. Tidal current powerplants can be built anywhere where the ebb and flood of the tidesgenerate strong currents. The list of places offering ideal conditionsincludes Scotland, France, Canada, and East Asia.

Strangford Lough’s natural harbor is an attractive location for variousreasons. First and foremost, it is relatively shallow. This has made itpossible to anchor the power plant at a depth of around 30 meters,explains Kai Oliver Kölmel, who is responsible for Ocean Power at theSiemens Solar & Hydro Division. “Shallow water makes it easier toanchor a facility into the seabed,” he says. “In addition, the ebb andflow of the tides is stronger in shallow waters. For instance, the flowrate in the so-called Strangford Narrow gets as high as four meters ofwater per second; SeaGen needs a flow of at least one meter persecond to generate electricity.”

Underwater Electricity Factory. The Strangford Lough plant is operatedby Marine Current Turbines, a British company which Siemens acquired

in March 2012. The facility is similar to a wind turbine, the onlydifference being that it is driven by water instead of air. Each of its twodrive trains weighs 27 tons and is equipped with a rotor measuring 16meters in diameter.

The rotor blades can be turned through 180 degrees, which meansthey can produce electricity for up to 20 hours a day regardless ofwhether the tide is coming in or going out. The tower to which the twopropeller turbines are attached via a cross-member has a diameter ofthree meters. Depending on the tide, the tower can protrude as muchas 20 meters above the sea. The rotors can’t be seen above the water —and it’s even possible to take a small boat directly past the turbinebecause the rotors are located at least three meters below the surface.“Maintenance is easy,” says Kölmel, “because the facility can be easilyaccessed and the cross-members to which the turbines are attachedcan be raised out of the water using a hydraulic lifting system.”

Although extensive installation costs make an investment in tidalcurrent power plants around twice as high as that for offshore windpower facilities, the resulting electricity offers several benefits. Forexample, the energy density of water is 800 times higher than that ofwind, which makes generating electricity with water much moreefficient. A 1.2 MW tidal plant like the one at Strangford Lough canproduce as much electricity in a year as a 2.5 MW offshore windturbine. The electricity yield from tidal facilities is also more preciselycalculable, which enhances planning security. After all, tidal currentsare determined by the moon and the Earth’s gravitation, so they’re notdependent on the weather and can be predicted years in advance.

The International Energy Agency estimates the global output potentialof tidal power plants to be as high as 800 terawatt-hours per year —enough to supply 250 million households with electricity. MarineCurrent Turbines continues to invest in tidal technologies. Among otherthings, the company plans to start building a tidal turbine park near the Isle of Skye in northeastern Scotland in 2013. When it’s completed,the facility will supply up to 4,000 households with electricity from the sea.

Tapping Invisible Rivers

Tidal flows represent a largely untapped source

of clean energy. But with an energy density

800 times that of wind, water offers a highly-

efficient and reliable source of power.

French Connection

Low losses: An 800-kV transformer for overhead HVDC transmission in China.

Siemens is building power converter stations for a high-voltage direct cur-rent (HVDC) transmission system with a record capacity of 2,000

megawatts (MW). Starting in 2013, the new HVDC Plus technology will trans-mit 2,000 MW as direct current over a distance of 65 kilometers under-ground. The system, which was financed in part by the European Union, willlink the French and Spanish grids. At the moment, the two countries’ gridsare linked only by low-capacity lines. Power grids will have to be substantiallyupgraded throughout Europe if more renewable energy is to be used in thefuture. If large amounts of power are to be transmitted over long distancesunderwater or underground rather than via overhead lines, alternating cur-rent is not suitable. That’s because cable capacitances would cause high-losscharging and discharging phases. In contrast, in an HVDC system, transmis-sion losses are 30 to 40 percent lower than in a comparable three-phase alter-nating current line. Siemens technology will enable two cables to transmit1,000 MW of power each at around 320 kilovolts, which is the maximumvoltage that today’s cables can handle. Compared to their predecessors, theHVDC Plus power converter stations have much to offer. In addition to beingmore flexible and robust, they are also less susceptible to breakdowns.

Fired up for Coal and Algae

Microcultures can be harvested every few hours.

S iemens is testing the combined combustion of coal andbiomass. In collaboration with PetroAlgae Inc., a U.S.

alternative energy company, a Siemens burner was recentlyfired with coal dust and plant-based microcultures fromPetroAlgae for the first time ever at the University of Utah.Nitrogen oxide emissions were around 20 percent lowerthan the levels that would have been produced by coaloperation alone. Microcultures such as algae are a climate-neutral fuel. This is because plants release only as much CO2

as they originally absorbed from the atmosphere whilegrowing. Due to their high carbon content, they deliver alarge amount of energy relative to their mass and can thusprovide an environmentally-friendly alternative to straightcoal combustion.

The Taipei 101 skyscraper has been granted “Leader-ship in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) cer-

tification in Platinum. The tallest green building in theworld, the tower uses 30 percent less energy than conven-tional structures. Lighting and air conditioning systems areautomatically switched off in unoccupied rooms and of-fices, while ice produced using cheap electricity at nighthelps to cool the building during the day. Thanks to theseand other measures, the building has reduced its CO2

emissions by around 3,000 metric tons per year. Siemensplayed a major role in this success story by serving as aLEED consultant. The company installed building manage-ment, safety, and lighting solutions in Taipei 101 in 2004.

Towering Results

Taipei 101 has cut its energy costs by $700,000 per year.


With Rio+20, the United Nations hopes torekindle the spirit of 1992 and once more callon the international community to exert itselfon behalf of increased sustainability. One newfocus at the summit will be an appeal for moresupport for the green economy. On the onehand, this emphasis is intended to safeguardsustainable development, but on the other itcan also serve as an instrument for combattingpoverty through the creation of jobs and in-creased independence. Today as before, gov-ernment representatives will meet with ex-perts and the representatives of institutionsand stakeholder groups to discuss how accessto medical care, water, energy, education, andfood can be ensured in sustainable ways.

Projects around the world demonstrate thatmuch can already be achieved. For example,driverless subways and hybrid buses in a num-ber of major cities are helping to reduce trafficjams while offering people a quick and envi-ronmentally friendly way to get around. In ad-dition to photovoltaic power stations, wind tur-


The 1992 United Nations Conference on En-vironment and Development is considered

to have been a milestone of international de-velopment aid policy. Against the backdrop ofincreasing environmental pollution and mas-sive consumption of natural resources, theUnited Nations called on governments to re-think their definition of growth. Developmentaid policy was to be formulated not only withthe objective of economic development inmind but also with a sense of environmentalawareness and with due regard for the ideal ofsustainability. But that was not all. Living con-ditions were also to be taken into account incountries’ growth plans, since adverse environ-mental impacts can result not just from exces-sive consumption on the part of wealthy coun-tries but also from poverty if there are no fundsavailable for environmental protection meas-ures or if there is reliance on obsolete andtherefore inefficient technology. At the end ofthe summit, all 178 participating countriessigned a document known as Agenda 21, thus

committing themselves to sustainable environ-mental, economic, and development policies.This agenda included resolutions on fightingpoverty, changing the conditions of produc-tion and consumption, and protecting oceans,forests, natural resources, and biodiversity.

Since 1992, however, little has changedwith respect to the challenges that were ad-dressed at that time. The number of endan-gered species continues to grow, as does theproportion of cleared rain forest. And we arestill using environmentally harmful methods ofproduction and raw materials extraction thataccelerate climate change and exacerbate re-source scarcity, thus magnifying the chal-lenges caused by the global trends of urbaniza-tion and demographic change.

But there is cause for hope as well. Renew-able energies are gaining ground; efficientstate-of-the-art technologies offer many op-portunities to act in environmentally friendlyways; and awareness of sustainable develop-ment issues is growing in many countries.

How can we make the world economy more sustainable? Policymakers asked themselves this questionback in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Twenty years later, countries around the world willhold a follow-up conference in the same location in hopes of finding new ways to generate prosperityand sustainable development. Technology can make an important contribution.

Sustainable Development | Rio+20

The SkyHydrant mobile water filter (far right),

the WE!HUB photovoltaic project (center), and medical

equipment for native villages (left and this page) in

Brazil’s Amazon basin illustrate Siemens’ commitment

to the principles of the 2012 Earth Summit.

Rekindling the Spirit of 1992

bines and efficient natural gas turbine powerplants are already providing a sustainable sup-ply of energy in many places.

But even in places that lack the funds forsuch cost-intensive projects, it is still possibleto achieve changes immediately with just a lit-tle effort and the right technology. Sustainabletechnologies are not expensive luxury goodsreserved for only a few wealthy countries. Onthe contrary, small and efficient technologicalsolutions can make life comfortable and envi-ronmentally friendly even in poor regions andwithout expensive high-tech products.

Clean Water Wherever it’s Needed. Con-sider the question of providing potable water,for instance. According to figures compiled bythe World Health Organization (WHO), 780million people are under threat from disease asa result of drinking contaminated water. Everyyear, around two million people die as a result— mostly children and the elderly. As one of itsMillennium Development Goals, the United

Nations therefore plans to halve the number ofpeople without access to clean, potable waterby 2015.

Achieving this goal to the greatest extentpossible requires overcoming major technicaland logistical challenges. The technology usedmust be robust, reliable, and inexpensive, andit must be easy to use and maintain. One solu-tion of this kind is the “SkyHydrant.” This mo-bile water treatment system filters river water,for instance, by means of tiny pores on 10,000hair-thin membrane fibers.

Developed by Rhett Butler, who works forSiemens Water Technologies in Sydney, Aus-tralia, the device, which weighs only 16 kilo-grams and is 1.5 meters in height, produces atleast 10,000 liters of drinking water each day.It currently operates within the framework oflocal partnerships in more than 40 countriesand costs approximately $0.30 per person peryear.

In addition to the issue of clean drinkingwater, many regions also lack electrical energy.


In such cases, people in remote areas often re-sort to using diesel generators, but these spewout large amounts of pollutant emissions. TheSiemens Stiftung foundation, the Global Na-ture Fund, lamp manufacturer Osram, andThames Electricals, a Kenyan company, wantto generate solar power in remote regions ofKenya within the framework of a joint projectcalled WE!HUB, which is being funded by theEuropean Union.

Remote regions lack the large power plantsand expensive distribution networks thatwould be required to provide their inhabitantswith electricity. But with photovoltaic cells ontheir roofs, villagers will be able to generatepower themselves in an inexpensive and envi-ronmentally friendly way. Using rechargeablebatteries and energy-saving light bulbs, theycan then use this power to light living areas,charge mobile phones, and obtain drinkingwater using pumps or treatment systems suchas SkyHydrant, and thus achieve a sustainableincrease in their quality of life (p. 66).

Wind energy is another way to bring elec-tricity to remote regions. Belgian Siemens en-gineer Piet-Willem Chevalier recognized thisback in 2009. Using refuse and simple materi-als, he built wind energy facilities in Mali in col-laboration with Rondom Baba, a local founda-tion. The wind turbines were manufacturedlocally, and residents were trained to assembleand service the systems so that they would lat-er be able to guarantee their continued opera-tion themselves or even build more wind tur-bines.

People Make It Possible. In Rio, these andother examples of the sensible and sustainablelinking of technology and development workwill be presented by Siemens, participatingNGOs, and the Siemens foundation under theheading “Technology in Action.”

Also in attendance at Rio+20 will be repre-sentatives of the Community Impact Develop-ment Group, a network of social entrepreneursthat was established by the Siemens founda-

tion in cooperation with Ashoka, one of theworld’s largest international organizations forthe support of social entrepreneurs. The initia-tive is supplying technical equipment to sup-port projects in Africa and Latin America in agreat variety of fields, such as waste manage-ment, environmentally friendly resource uti-lization, communications technology, sanitaryequipment and plumbing.

SkyHydrant, WE!HUB, and other examplesillustrate that solutions are now available toimprove people’s living conditions through rel-atively simple measures that have only a mini-mal impact on the environment. It is importantto bring home the appeal of this approach toyoung people in particular, since they are theones who will shape the world of tomorrow.Together with its partners, Siemens is there-fore bringing dedicated young people fromaround the world to Rio in order to provide aplatform for their ideas. Known as “Studentsfor Sustainability,” groups of young peoplefrom South Africa, Brazil, Germany, the UK,

and China will present their sustainable solu-tions for local challenges and work with ex-perts to identify ways in which different re-gions can benefit from their approaches. Atthe same time, the Siemens foundation islaunching an international competition to findnew low-tech solutions. Anyone, whether heor she is a professional inventor or simply likesto tinker as a hobby, is welcome to submit aninvention that contributes to the improvementof living conditions in developing countriesand emerging markets. The deadline for sub-missions is the end of 2012. Awards will bepresented in mid-2013.

The sustainability of our world will dependto a large extent on seemingly small solutions.Nevertheless, many big challenges will remaineven after Rio+20. But with the right generalframework and the right technologies, thosechallenges will be tackled in the campaign’snext stage. That’s very much in keeping withthe Siemens motto for Rio+20, which is: “Wecan act now!” Andreas Wenleder


Highlights12 Less is More Whether we are confrontating the challenges of climate change or the problems posed by the growing scarcity of commodities such as carbon fuels and metals, technologies that boost efficiency have never been as important as they are today.

15 China’s Sustainability Boom China’s top priorities include boosting efficiency, reducing emissions, and creating environmentally-sustainable cities.

22 Germany’s „Energiewende“ Germany’s new energy policy includes far more than just phasing out nuclear power by 2022. It will require a wide range of measures that will have to fit together perfectly like the parts of a puzzle.

24 Lower Prices in the Air Engineers at Siemens are developing technologies that could radically increase the competitiveness of windpower.

27 Record-Setting Power Plant Siemens’ newest combined cycle power plant converts up to 60.75 percent of the energy contained in natural gas into electricity — a world record.

31 The Most Versatile Fuel When it comes to storing the power generated by excess wind and solar energy, nothing beats hydrogen.

2035A modern copy of Pompeii is about to open

its doors. Funded by private investors and

cultural institutions, the new city will offer

apartments and villas for thousands of resi-

dents. It will also offer research opportuni-

ties for students and scholars, and a venue

as a living laboratory for combing the effi-

ciency of ancient urban plans with the latest

in energy-saving technologies.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2012 11

2035.Hi! Let me introduce myself.Almuntasir Ben Zeyyad, chief

visionary and architect of something complete-ly novel, yet thousands of years old: PompeiiNovum — an innovative city based on its an-cient eponym; a city designed to invisibly meldeverything we know about energy efficiencywith the best of what the ancients knew aboutliving in harmony with the environment andwith each other. And we’ve almost made it!

Just a few years ago there was nothing herebut an abandoned naval base, a magnificent

Extravagant, emotional, and self assured, the “chief visionary”of a modern version of Pompeii explains how the city’s ancientcounterpart has served as a model for a new kind of future.

Let the Games Begin!Formulas for Efficiency | Scenario 2035

view of the sea, and an idea. But in a fewmonths, people will be shopping for genuine“hand-made-equivalent” copies of ancient Ro-man products, and sipping freshly-pressedpomegranate juice at sidewalk tabernae in theshaded, frescoed nooks of arcaded forumbuildings — exact copies of the originals.Tourists and locals will be exploring the city’sochre-colored streets, relaxing in our baths anddeliriously cheering their favorite contestantsat our fully-functional coliseum. Students andscholars will be studying mosaic and fresco de-

12 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2012

A transformer platform at Sweden’s

Lillgrund offshore wind farm steps down

the voltage of electricity generated

from wind energy and then feeds

it into the grid.

Today, prizes and awards, even in the fieldof technology, are a dime a dozen. But the

Innovation Prize of German Business, whichhas been awarded annually since 1980, hasmanaged to retain its cachet, not least becauseit is the oldest award of its kind anywhere inthe world.

The inspiration behind the award was therecognition that the growing scarcity of rawmaterials means that the only way to remaincompetitive in global markets is to engage inconstant research and innovation. In additionto computer technology and medical engineer-ing — two of the major topics common to

signs, Roman engineering techniques and his-tory in meticulously duplicated versions of theoriginal city’s majestic homes. Entrepreneurswill be opening restaurants, many of them sell-ing foods very similar to those sold in ancientPompeii. And, yes, thousands of people will ac-tually live here in updated, zero-net-energyversions of ancient Pompeian villas and apart-ments. Our order books are full!

Sure, living here may take some gettingused to. If you’re looking for 24-hour car wash-es, gas stations buzzing with aggressive mo-torists, or blindingly-lit, heat-trapping parkinglots, you’ll have to look elsewhere! If you missstreets that can’t be cleaned because of wall-to-wall vehicles, mopeds that run grandmoth-ers off of sidewalks, trucks that barrel downresidential streets in the small hours of thenight, “walk” signs that are timed for sprinters,and a thousand other vehicle-related indigni-ties and eyesores, please, do yourself a favor,and don’t come to Pompeii Novum!

Here, unlike most other cities, we have aninspired vision of efficiency. First of all, Pom-peii Novum will be energy self sufficient. If youlook over my shoulder, past the forum, out tothe sea, you’ll notice a forest of giant wind-mills, their blades rotating in perfect synchro-nization with one another to minimize drag-producing cross currents. Each one produces ahuge amount of electricity.

With a view to powering a range of auto-mated construction equipment, the wind parkand parts of the related energy distributionand storage infrastructure were one of the firstthings we installed. The energy generated byour windmills is used to desalinate sea water,fill reservoirs with potable water, and rundozens of underground electrolyzers. You cansee one of them over here, next to the multi-story underground tunnel system with one lev-el for passenger transit via automated electricvehicles and another level for delivery traffic.The electrolyzers generate hydrogen gas usingsurplus electricity from the wind farm and a gi-gantic solar system in the desert. The gas isthen converted back into electricity in fuelcells, or is reacted with atmospheric carbondioxide to produce methane. The methane canthen be used as vehicle fuel or as gas for heat-ing, just like natural gas.

So much for energy generation and storage.How do we plan to manage energy consump-tion? First of all, let me tell you about PompeiiNovum’s Planning and Simulation Center, whichyou can see right behind me. There, we startedout with a digital model of the ancient city,adapted the model to the present site, andthen optimized its buildings and neighbor-hoods in terms of their individual and collec-tive energy and infrastructural dynamics andneeds. A program then combed the entire city

model to find the best locations to install mo-tion, temperature, and carbon dioxide sensors— proxies for occupancy detection, and thusthe basis for ensuring that heating, cooling,and lighting would not be wasted. The sensorsare equipped with microchips that can receivesoftware upgrades via radio. They were in-stalled by robotic “craftsmen” that provide con-tinuous feedback as to their own progress.

Once the city is inhabited, these systemswill automatically adjust temperature, humidi-ty and lighting levels in public and commercialbuildings based on how many people are pres-ent in any given room or common area, andwill do the same in private homes, givingprecedence to the specific demands and habitsof regular users. During warm weather, for in-stance, these sensing systems will ensure thatthe right amount of cool air is drawn from cis-terns fed by impluvia to provide refreshing,natural ventilation wherever needed.

To give Pompeii Novum’s future inhabitantsan incentive to use as little power as possible,the price of electricity will vary from hour tohour as supply and demand change. A stan-dardized protocol will allow all homes andbusinesses to receive, interpret, and adjust forprice signals from the city’s power utility. Peo-ple will be able to set their thermostats atwhatever temperature they wish. But individu-als competing within family units, householdscompeting within neighborhoods, and evendepartments within larger organizations willreceive rewards such as bonus hours in thecity’s spectacular baths or free tickets to colise-um events — details provided via smart phonemessages with classic Roman lute or kitharasound signatures — if they manage to keeptheir energy use below given targets.

In production shops, city maintenance facil-ities, food preparation centers, and other ener-gy-intensive operations, many of which will beunderground and entirely automated, groupsof smart tools will organize their processes ac-cording to the spot price of electricity, thushelping to keep their products competitivelypriced. And of course, a city ordinance will re-quire all privately and publically purchased en-ergy-consuming devices in Pompeii Novum tomeet the latest requirements for energy self di-agnostics and associated maintenance.

Oh my, it’s getting late! Let me just add thatthe investors and institutes backing our projectare so excited by the response we’ve had thatthey are already thinking ahead to new settle-ments based on other ancient cities, such asAlexandria, Leptis Magna, and Herculaneum.Major hotel chains, retirement community op-erators, healthcare and fitness associations,and sports clubs are clamoring to invest withus. They are saying: “Let the games begin!”

Arthur F. Pease


Whether we are confronting the challenges of climate change orthe problems posed by the growing scarcity of commodities suchas carbon fuels and metals, technologies that boost efficiencyhave never been as important as they are today.

Efficiency is the KeyFormulas for Efficiency | Trends

Many of the technologies required for thispurpose are available today, including intelli-gent facility automation and energy manage-ment systems (see p. 29). In an interview withPictures of the Future, Prof. Ernest J. Moniz, anenergy expert at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) and a member of PresidentBarack Obama’s Council of Advisors for Scienceand Technology (PCAST), explained exactlywhat savings can be made with such technolo-gies: “The National Academy of Sciences pub-lished a study in 2008 showing that just themodernization of today’s stock of real estatewould reduce total energy use in the U.S. byaround one fifth by 2020.” In the future, more-over, buildings will not only use less energy,but will also help relieve strains on the powergrid. Software will fine tune power demand inthousands of buildings in response to changesin the price of electricity, thus reducing collec-tive demand in real-time. This will help to flat-ten peaks in overall demand — a cost-efficientmeans of stabilizing the power distributiongrid.

According to Bettenhausen, more researchis required to make national economies as sus-tainable as possible. “I’m thinking primarily ofareas such as energy storage and the capture,sequestration, and usage of CO2 as a raw ma-terial,” he says. The re-use of carbon dioxidecould be of particular interest to industry.Siemens, for instance, is researching the use ofalgae to convert CO2 into biomass — therebygenerating a raw material for biofuels, bioplas-tics, or animal feed — and it is also investigat-ing ways of using CO2 in chemical processes(see p. 31).

Elsewhere in industry, R&D activities are fo-cused on ways of boosting energy efficiency.Electric motors offer by far the richest potentialfor savings here, since they account for around60 percent of the electricity consumed by Eu-ropean industry. In China, the proportion is ashigh as 80 percent. The use of efficient motorsand smart control technology can reduce pow-

The think tank Global Footprint Network es-timates that we are already using natural re-sources at a rate that is 50 percent higher thanthese can regenerate. If this trend continueswe would need two to three earths to supportus by 2050. In other words, increased efficien-cy, recycling, a circular economy, and consump-tion geared toward conserving resources areneeded today more urgently than ever before.

The good news is that opportunities toboost efficiency are at hand practically every-where. What’s more, such solutions are ex-tremely attractive for everyone concerned.Those who manage to reduce their use of en-ergy or resources, whether at home or in an in-dustrial environment, without cutting per-formance or output not only help preserve theenvironment but are also rewarded in the formof reduced expenses and a higher level of com-petitiveness.

Environmental technology has long sinceshed its image as expensive and inessential.Siemens posted revenues of €30 billion in fis-cal year 2011 from sales of the exceptionallyefficient products and solutions in its Environ-mental Portfolio. What’s more, this market hasa substantially larger potential. In fact, theWorld Business Council for Sustainable Devel-opment (WBCSD) estimates that business op-portunities in the environmental sector will to-tal as much as $6.3 trillion a year by 2050.

Making Buildings More Efficient. Much ofthis expected business volume will be generat-ed by improvements made to the energy effi-ciency of buildings, which are currently re-sponsible for around 40 percent of all energyuse worldwide and thus for 20 percent ofworldwide greenhouse gas emissions. “Thebest way to save energy is to not use it in thefirst place. And one of the best ways of doingthis is to develop energy-efficient buildings,”says Kurt Bettenhausen, who heads theSiemens Corporate Technology (CT) ResearchCenter in Princeton, New Jersey.

prizewinners over the years — recurrentthemes have been solutions to boost energyefficiency and intelligent ways of using rawmaterials.

Never before has the need for efficienttechnology been as critical as it is today. Along-side renewable sources of energy (p. 24), themain weapon in the fight to contain climatechange at a manageable level is greater effi-ciency in the generation, transmission, andconsumption of power. At the same time,growth in world population and rising levels ofpurchasing power in many countries threatento cause shortages of raw materials.

ciency. The government’s Industrial Technolo-gies Program, for example, offers companiesfinancial incentives to install energy-efficienttechnology. At the same time, the country issteadily converting its coal-fired power plantsto natural gas, a much cleaner fuel, which canbe used in highly efficient combined-cyclepower plants to produce electricity. “In the cur-rent decade alone, plants with a combinedoutput of between 60,000 and 90,000megawatts could be converted to natural gas,”says MIT energy expert Moniz.

And more gas-powered generating capacityis on the way, much of it involving turbinesmade by Siemens. Operating with a steam tur-bine in a combined cycle, a gas turbine fromSiemens has set a new world efficiency record,with 60.75 percent of the energy contained inthe natural gas fuel being converted into elec-tricity at an output of 578 megawatts —enough to supply a major city the size ofBerlin.

At present, the average efficiency of com-bined-cycle power plants in the U.S. is lessthan 40 percent. In other words, replacingthese with the most efficient turbines fromSiemens would reduce gas demand by onethird. As of 2013, six of these turbines will beoperating in Florida, where upgrades to thestate’s power plants will yield the operator,Florida Power & Light, net savings of almost $1 billion over the full life cycle of the turbines.

This is another example of how a cleanerenvironment and a stronger economy can —and, in the future, must — go hand in hand.Many experts agree that this kind of sustain-able model is the only possible option for fu-ture economic growth.

Technologies such as those in Siemens’ newgas turbine are now leading the way. The juryof the Innovation Prize of German Businesswas of a similar opinion, and in February 2012it presented the honor to this record-breakingdevelopment.

Sebastian Webelwith research by Arthur F. Pease


er demand in this area by as much as 60 per-cent. Normally, this kind of investment will payfor itself within two years, following which thecustomer begins to profit from the substantialreductions in energy consumption.

Other effective ways of reducing energyuse and associated costs include, for example,the installation of sophisticated energy man-agement systems, smart software for enhanc-ing entire production processes, and technolo-gies to improve the exploitation of waste heatin industrial facilities.

“At present, around half of the primary en-ergy used for industrial processes and powergeneration is lost as waste heat,” explains Dr.Martin Tackenberg, a specialist in thermalmanagement at CT in Erlangen. “We are nowrunning a project to identify and develop arange of processes to make much better eco-nomic and environmental use of this wastedenergy. Our goal is to bring down such lossesto a maximum of between 30 to 40 percent by2020. That would translate into enormous sav-ings in energy and costs.”

At the same time, industry needs to look atmethods of production that reduce its use ofother resources. This will not only save moneybut also reduce exposure to the risks associat-ed with the increasing scarcity of raw materi-als. According to a German governmentagency that focuses on the efficiency of mate-rials, introduction of the very latest processesdesigned to conserve and recover resourceswould save companies in Germany around€100 billion a year. That’s reason enough forcompanies such as Siemens to be developingnew methods to make the most of valuableraw materials.

On the other hand, industry already pos-sesses numerous methods for boosting the ef-ficiency of industrial processes. What reallycounts, however, is to ensure that these meth-ods are put into widespread use. Globally ori-ented companies such as Siemens, which op-erates in 190 countries, have a major role toplay in this regard. “Thanks to our expertise

and our global network, we can take theknowledge we have acquired in one regionand apply it in other markets,” explains Betten-hausen. Irrespective of whether such know-how has been acquired in India, China, Ger-many, or the U.S., senior figures likeBetten hausen intend to pool and harness suchknowledge to an ever-increasing extent.

“We are setting up a facility in the U.S.where we will investigate all the best practicesdeveloped by Siemens employees around theworld. We’re calling it the Affordable UrbanLiving Lab. This is where our researchers willbe able to build and test their prototypes underrealistic conditions.

No matter whether we’re talking about au-tomation, building systems, or energy efficien-cy, the goal will always be to gather informa-tion, process that information, and convert theresults into measures that are specifically de-signed to improve efficiency,” Bettenhausenexplains.

From Coal to Gas. In tandem with business,governments around the world are now start-ing to show a more responsible attitude to-ward the planet. Included is China, which isnow the world’s largest energy user and emit-ter of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, the Inter-national Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by2035 China will be using around 70 percentmore energy than the U.S.

The country is already suffering from theenvironmental results of its massive economicgrowth over recent decades. According to theWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), 16 of theworld’s 20 dirtiest cities in 2008 were in China.To meet the country’s needs as sustainably aspossible, the Chinese government has now re-solved to uncouple economic growth from theconsumption of resources and to systematical-ly promote renewable energy sources and en-hanced energy efficiency (p. 15).

In the U.S. too, where electricity consump-tion per capita is almost twice that of Europe,there are increased efforts to improve effi -

New technologies are making fossil-fuel facilities more efficient. Left: A combined-cycle plant in Irsching, Germany and the Waigaoqiao 3 coal-fired plant in Shanghai.


International Energy Agency (IEA), oil con-sumption is set to rise by 70 percent between2009 and 2015. By 2015 China is expected toaccount for 42 percent of global oil demand. Ina similar vein, the IEA estimates that China’spower consumption rose by 200 percent in thepast decade and that its water consumptioncould double by 2030 (see Pictures of the Fu-ture, Fall 2011, p. 82).

For a long time, these trends took a toll onthe environment. In fact, China is currently re-sponsible for around one fourth of energy-re-lated CO2 emissions worldwide and is alreadythe world’s largest producer of greenhousegases, ahead of the U.S. According to a 2008report by the World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF), 16 of the 20 cities with the worst airquality around the globe were Chinese. Yet thecountry is mindful of this problem and has be-gun to take action to remedy it.

“In 2006. China’s 11th five-year plan mar keda paradigm shift in the country’s attitude to-ward sustainability,” says Martin Klarer, who isresponsible for corporate strategy at SiemensChina. “Environmental protection and en-hanced efficiency are now major elements ofChina’s economic plans.”

World Champion Wind Harvester. The useof wind power is a prime example. “Less thanten years ago, there was almost no wind gen-eration here,” Klarer explains; “but today Chinais the world’s largest wind energy market andhome to some of the world’s largest wind pow-er companies.” What’s more, this is a growingmarket. According to the newspaper ShanghaiDaily, in 2011 China generated some 70 ter-awatt-hours (TWh) — 70 billion kilowatt-hours(kWh) — by means of wind power, an increaseof 40 percent over the previous year.

At a celebrations to mark the Chinese newyear on January 23, 2012, there were

many more fireworks in evidence than hadbeen the case in previous years. That’s because2012 is the Year of the Dragon, which is said tobring happiness and success. As a conse-quence, the whole country expects birthratesto soar. According to popular belief, childrenborn under the sign of the dragon are blessedby good fortune.

If forecasts produced by the United Nationsare accurate, China’s population, currently at1.34 billion, will reach 1.4 billion by around2025. At present, with half of the country’speople already living in cities, the economy isgrowing at around ten percent a year and hasbeen doing so for quite some time. Althoughthis trend has rescued millions from poverty, ithas also unleashed an immense hunger forgoods, resources, and energy. According to the

China is regarded as this century’s economic miracle. Yet for a long time, its stunning growth came at the expense of the environment. But times have changed. Today, the country’s top prioritiesinclude boosting efficiency, reducing emissions, and creating environmentally-sustainable cities.

Sustainability BoomFormulas for Efficiency | China

Sunshine in Beijing: Things could one day look this

bright all over China, thanks to a series of measures

including the promotion of electrical mobility or

wind power. Today China is the world's largest wind

energy market.

Exploiting Savings Potential At present,mega cities such as Beijing and Shanghai canonly dream of tapping any form of clean powerin quantities such as these. They still rely large-ly on electricity generated by coal-fired plants.Here, ways of bringing about a lasting reduc-tion of CO2 emissions include improved gener-ating efficiency, smarter usage of power, anddemand reduction strategies — primarily in in-dustry, but also in private households. As of2008, for example, all Chinese homes havebeen able to purchase subsidized energy-sav-ing bulbs for a tenth of their original price. Inthe first year of this campaign, 62 million low-energy lamps were sold; the figure has sinceexceeded 120 million. In Beijing alone, thereare 15 to 20 million energy-saving bulbs in usethanks to this campaign. Compared to conven-tional incandescent bulbs, this means savingsof up to one billion kilowatt-hours per year.

When it comes to industry, however, theauthorities have opted for binding legislation.This is because industrial electric motors arethe largest consumers of power in China. Ac-cording to China’s National Development andReform Commission (NDRC), they account foraround 60 percent of domestic power con-sumption. “Less than three percent of industri-al motors in China carry the Chinese energy ef-ficiency rating of 2 or better,” says Du Bin,product manager at Siemens Drive Technolo-gies in China.

Yet this is set to change. Since July 2011, allindustrial motors sold in China must have anenergy efficiency rating of at least 2. Potential-ly, this represents a massive reduction in costs.“If all the industrial motors in China wereswapped for more energy-efficient models,consumption would fall by around 60 TWh ayear. CO2 emissions would decrease by 50 mil-lion metric tons,” says Du Bin. In collaborationwith colleagues in Germany, Siemens DriveTechnologies in China has developed a more


China is planning to install wind turbineswith a total capacity of 150 gigawatts (GW) by2020. That’s equivalent to almost the totalcombined renewable and conventional in-stalled capacity in Germany. It is also worth re-membering that at the end of 2006 China’swind power capacity was a mere 2.6 GW.

In other words, wind energy is a major mar-ket of the future in China. As the world leaderin offshore wind power installations, Siemensis thus looking to capitalize on this expansion,not least because of the huge potential in thissegment of the industry. With shallow watersextending many kilometers from its coastline,China offers ideal conditions for offshore windfarms. With this in mind, in spring 2011Siemens opened a facility that produces na-celles for wind power plants in close proximityto an existing rotor blade plant. Located closeto Shanghai, right on the East China Sea, thefacilities have an annual capacity equivalent toa generating output of 500 megawatts (MW).

“We’re supplying not only China but practi-cally the entire Asian market as well,” says Vic-tor Li, head of turbine production at Siemens,China. “For now, we’re producing 2.3 MW tur-bines; but later we’ll build 3.6 MW models andeven 6 MW ones.” The fruits of this labor are al-ready visible in Jiangsu province on China’seast coast, where Siemens has installed an off-shore wind farm with 21 wind towers and a to-tal output of 50 MW. “We also have firm ordersfrom other countries, including Thailand,” addsBjarne Joergensen, head of the rotor bladeplant.

Traditional Hydroelectricity. Whereas theuse of wind power is a recent phenomenon,hydroelectricity has been an integral part ofChina’s energy mix for 100 years. A centuryago Siemens installed generators with a com-bined output of 480 kilowatts (kW) in thecountry’s first hydroelectric plant, located in

Yunnan province in southwest China. It wasthe start of a unique boom. Today China hasmore hydroelectric facilities than any othercountry. With a combined output of 197 GW,these plants contribute some 15 percent of thepower consumed in China. According to theChina Electricity Council, around 4,700 TWhwere consumed in 2011 — almost eight timesGermany’s annual energy requirements.

Nonetheless, the lion’s share of the powerconsumed in China’s huge cities is still generat-ed by coal-fired plants. Along with the rapidlyrising tide of traffic, this is one of the majorcauses of the country’s serious smog prob-lems. “The challenge is that the majority ofChina’s hydropower is generated in remotesouthwest provinces, hundreds of kilometersfrom the nearest population centers,” saysKlarer. The remedy is to use high-voltage di-rect-current transmission lines. These low-losslines can transmit huge amounts of powerover hundreds or thousands of kilometers.

One such HVDCT line built by Siemens andelectricity provider China Southern Power Grid(CSG) has been operating since 2010. It sup-plies the major cities of Guangzhou and Shen-zhen in the southern Chinese province ofGuangdong with 5,000 MW of clean powergenerated by hydropower plants in Yunnan,some 1,400 kilometers away. Compared to theemissions associated with coal-fired genera-tion, the region produces 30 million metrictons less CO2 a year thanks to the new line (seePictures of the Future, Fall 2009, p. 24).

China’s utilities are planning a crop of addi-tional HVDCT lines, 14 of which are due forcompletion by 2015. Two of these are beingbuilt by Siemens, CSG, and other Chinese part-ners. Featuring transformers, converters, andother key Siemens components, these twolines will transmit an additional 11,400 MW ofclean power to Guangdong from 2013 on-ward.

The Huaneng combined-cycle power plant (left) and the Waigaoqiao No. 3 coal-fired plant are setting new global standards for efficiency.

efficient electric motor for the Chinese market,where it is already being manufactured. “Ourmotor is designed to be inexpensive, robust,and very easy to operate. Because it also con-forms to the standards of the InternationalElectrotechnical Commission (IEC), it is sure tobe marketed worldwide,” adds Du Bin.

There is also huge potential for improvingthe efficiency of China’s coal-fired powerplants, which cover around four fifths of thecountry’s electricity needs. Take Shanghai, forexample, with its population of 23 million.Here, daily power consumption can rise to asmuch as 20 GW and is currently increasing byaround 1 GW every year. In order to provide a

sustainable response to this huge demand, cityauthorities have turned to new technology.Here, projects include the coal-fired Waigao-qiao No. 3 power plant. With turbines and gen-erators from Siemens, the plant boasts a netefficiency of 46 percent, one of the highest inthe world for a facility of this type. This plant,which was commissioned in 2008, consumesaround 700,000 metric tons per year less thana standard Chinese coal-fired plant; its corre-sponding CO2 emissions are around 1.8 millionmetric tons lower.

China’s most efficient combined cycle pow-er plant, which also relies on Siemens turbinesand generators, is located nearby. The facility,which is operated by Huaneng Shanghai Com-bined Cycle Power Co., LTD, has an output of1,200 MW and an efficiency of 58 percent.Commissioned in 2006, its job is to cover thehuge peaks in demand that can rock Shang-

Thanks to high voltage direct current technology, China can use hydroelectric power to reduce air pollution in its mega cities. Above: supports for thyristors.


hai’s power grid on particularly cold or hotdays. “Compared to a coal-fired plant, the ad-vantage of a combined-cycle power plant is itsenormous flexibility,” says the plant’s generalmanager Xie Deyu. “The plant comprises threeblocks, each with a rating of 400 MW. We canramp up and ramp down any of these blocksfast enough to cover peaks in demand almostimmediately. Last year alone, we had to dealwith over 310 such incidents. If we didn’t havethe combined-cycle power plant, we’d proba-bly need to operate more coal-fired plants forbackup — and that would result in much high-er emissions.”

Another flexible option for buffering fluctu-ations in supply and demandwould be to exploit the batteriesof electric cars as an intermedi-ate storage facility, particularlywhen cities such as Shanghaistart to make greater use ofvariable sources of power suchas wind energy. At times of ei-

ther peak demand or low wind, this backupsupply could then be reintroduced to stabilizethe grid. Obviously, such a system would re-quire a much larger fleet of electric vehiclesthan is currently available. However, the au-thorities are now planning to put as many asone million hybrid and electric vehicles on Chi-nese roads by 2015. To help achieve this ambi-tious target, work has already begun to pro-vide the requisite infrastructure. At the end of2011, for example, Siemens installed 140charging stations for electric cars in Shanghai.

Sustainable City. “China has covered a lot ofground in terms of improved efficiency,” saysstrategy expert Klarer, “but it still faces bigchallenges, particularly in metropolitan areas,where the population is set to grow by an addi-tional 350 million over the next 15 to 20years.” Forecasts indicate that by 2025 there

will be around 220 cities with more than onemillion inhabitants. Many of these urban areaswill mushroom out of nothing. “To ensure thegreatest possible sustainability, these cities willrequire integrated holistic concepts rather thanthe discrete isolated solutions implemented inthe past,” Klarer adds. One such concept is cur-rently being realized just outside Tianjin, a portnear Beijing. Tianjin Eco-City will providehomes and work for around 350,000 peoplefrom 2020 onward. It should also provide Chi-na’s urban planners with an answer to themost pressing question of their time: how tobuild a sustainable city on the basis of a repro-ducible model under realistic conditions.

Such a project looks viable. Around 20 per-cent of the Tianjin’s electricity is to come fromrenewable sources; water consumption will behalf of today’s level; and 90 percent of trafficwill be based on green forms of mobility suchas bicycles, public transport, and electric cars.Naturally, the buildings will have intelligentmanagement systems and good insulation.

At the same time, the new eco-city willserve as a living research experiment. It will bepossible to make continual adjustments de-signed to improve the overall efficiency of theproject. In order to advance the cause of greenurbanization, the project company Sino-Singa-pore — a joint venture between the govern-ments of China and Singapore — intends to es-tablish a joint venture with Siemens. The aim isto harness a wide range of state-of-the-arttechnologies, develop and demonstrate fu-ture-oriented technologies, and create a visionthat will make Tianjin Eco-city a sustainableand replicable city model for the rest of China.Last and by no means least, a project like Tian-jin Eco-City underscores China’s continuingcommitment to enhanced efficiency — andthat’s an achievement that is much too pre-cious to be left to the vagaries of the Chinesezodiac. Sebastian Webel

By distributing around 120 millioncompact fluorescent lamps, China hassignificantly cut its electricity bill.


Prof. Li Junfeng (56) is the Chairman of the Academic Com-mittee of the Energy Research In-stitute and is currently serving asDeputy Director. His work focuseson renewable energy and climatechange issues such as the CleanDevelopment Mechanism (CDM)and carbon trading. He headed thefirst CDM project in China and is arepresentative in East Asia of theglobal Renewable Energy and En-ergy Efficiency Partnership.

What role do you see for renewable energy in China?Li Junfeng: China is investing a lot in cleanenergy. We currently have more than 200 gi-gawatts of installed hydro capacity and morethan 30 gigawatts of wind, with more projectsdown the line. I think that by 2050 the shareof clean energy in China will be much largerthan many currently think it will be.Du Xiangwan: By 2050 renewable energy,including exotic forms such as marine and ge-othermal energy, could account for 25 percentof China’s total energy production. If these re-newables can be expanded, rather than build-ing coal-fired power plants with the equivalentcapacity, it could add up to a reduction ofroughly four billion tons of CO2 emissions.Shi Zhengrong: You may call me a dreamer,but I believe that one day China will be able tosatisfy all its energy needs by means of renew-able sources. It is all a question of determina-tion. If you are determined to do something,than you should be able to achieve it — espe-cially in China.

On the other hand, at the moment a large share of new capacity for electricityproduction in China comes in the form ofcoal-fired plants…Shi Zhengrong: China is still a developingcountry. We need strong economic growth,and we need to produce affordable energy toenable this growth. However, the governmentdoes realize the need for environmental pro-tection. There are strict regulations on emis-sions in place, and a lot of high technologygoes into new facilities. Coal-fired plants willbecome cleaner, but we need some time toget it right.Du Xiangwan: It is a fact that coal is not go-ing to go away overnight. It is an importantpart of our energy mix, accounting for morethan three quarters of total energy production.And new plants will be built in China. This inturn means that 100 percent renewables is anunrealistic goal. However, together with nu-clear power and natural gas, renewables willat least help us to reduce the growth of CO2

emissions over time.

Formulas for Efficiency | Interviews

Powering the Chinese Dream

Li Junfeng: I agree. Gas in particular will playan important role. It is a cleaner fuel than coal,and compared with Europe and the U.S. it cur-rently makes up only a tiny share of our ener-gy mix. We have to catch up in this area, andwe will. I am convinced that in the long runthe share of coal in China’s energy mix willgradually decrease rather than increasing.

When it comes to setting the right targetsfor reducing CO2 emissions, which of thetwo should we focus on: emissions percapita or by country?Li Junfeng: In my opinion we should base re-duction targets on emissions per capita. Anyother approach would be unjust. Take the ex-amples of China and the EU. China has approx-imately 30 provinces. The EU has 27 states —but only about 40 percent of China’s popula-tion. Why would we count China as one coun-try, but not the EU?Du Xiangwan: I think it is much fairer to cal-culate emissions per capita, since every indi-vidual should have an equal right to draw on


Prof. Du Xiangwan (74) is theformer Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineer-ing, Senior Scientific Advisor ofthe China Academy of Engineer-ing Physics, and a Member ofthe Standing Committee of theChina Association of Scienceand Technology. He serves asthe deputy head of the NationalEnergy Advisory Committee andis chairing a series of studies onChina’s energy developmentstrategy.

Dr. Shi Zhengrong (48) is Chairman of the Board of Directorsand Chief Executive Officer of Sun-tech, the largest producer of pho-tovoltaic (PV) panels worldwide.He is also said to be one of therichest individuals in China. Priorto founding Suntech in 2001, hewas a research director and execu-tive director of Pacific Solar, anAustralian PV company engaged inthe commercialization of next-generation thin film technology.

The pace of China’s economic growth is lifting millions of people out of poverty. However, it is bring-ing its own problems. While energy efficiency remains relatively low, demand for energy is risingrapidly. Pictures of the Future spoke with three experts about the future of China’s energy supply.

resources. China has a very large population.Taking aggregate figures distorts the picture. Shi Zhengrong: This is a political question.Suntech’s objective as a private company —besides being profitable — is to make a posi-tive overall contribution by enhancing the sus-tainability of energy production. Suntech hasto date delivered a total photovoltaic capacityof 2.5 gigawatts. This is equivalent to fivemedium-sized coal-fired plants. In 2010 alonewe delivered panels with a capacity of 1.5 gi-gawatts. And our production is rising, helpingto avoid CO2 emissions all over the world.

China may be the world’s largest produc-er of photovoltaic panels, but only a mi-nuscule number of them are used locally.What has to happen to make China a userrather than just a producer of PV?Shi Zhengrong: The government has to pro-vide subsidies so that manufacturers and in-vestors can make a reasonable profit. Therewould be an additional benefit in this ap-proach. Actually using the technology makes it

cheaper through economies of scale and byfostering further efficiency gains through in-novation. To reach grid parity in China, wemust bring the costs down to about ten eurocents per kWh. That’s an ambitious target, butwe can get there. And we have to be ambi-tious. In the past we only heard about theAmerican dream. Nowadays there are manyChinese dreams.

What role do power grids play in the context of increasing the share of renewables in China?Li Junfeng: The buildup of capacity in bothwind and solar power will aggravate fluctua-tions; the patterns of production are bound tochange extensively. This will require a morestable and more intelligent grid. China is cur-rently making investments in this area. In ad-dition, wind, solar, and hydro power plantstend to be in remote areas, far away from thecenters of consumption, which tend to be con-centrated on the east coast and in certain ar-eas in the south. This calls for high-voltage di-

rect current transmission lines like the one fin-ished in 2010, which links Yunnan andGuangzhou. I understand that it draws onSiemens technology.

One element in making renewables morerelevant is innovation. Do you believethat Europe and the U.S. are ahead of thegame in this regard?Du Xiangwan: Innovation is crucial to boththe U.S. and China. However, I admit that wehave not been particularly strong in this area.This does not mean we should emulate the Sil-icon Valley model. China’s problems have theirown shape — and we will come up with ourown ways of nurturing innovation to solvethem. If we take a look at research on energyin particular, it becomes clear that China has agrowing advantage. Many more new powerplants are being built on our soil than any-where else. Those who want to study new en-ergy technology at work have a good reasonto come to China.

Interview by Andreas Kleinschmidt.


A n average of more than 50 percent of the inherent

energy in primary fuels such as coal, oil, and gas

continues to be lost as heat in the processes that con-

vert these fuels into useful forms of energy. In other

words, there is still huge potential for increasing effi-

ciency, especially in the areas of electricity generation,

industrial production, and building systems. According

to a 2011 study conducted by BCC Research, the global

market volume for energy-efficient technologies will in-

crease from $200 billion in 2010 to approximately

$312 billion by 2015.

Germany’s Federal Environment Agency reports

that state-of-the-art coal-fired power plants currently

have efficiency ratings as high as 46 percent. However,

average coal power plant efficiency in all of Europe is

only 36 percent, and the global figure is 33 percent. Im-

proving efficiency by just one percentage point would

lower CO2 emissions by up to 3 percent. To put it anoth-

er way, the construction of just one 500-megawatt

(MW) plant with an efficiency rating of 45 percent in-

stead of 36 percent would reduce annual CO2 emissions

by 380,000 tons. The World Coal Association reports

that if coal-fired plants over 25 years old with a capacity

of less than 300 MW were replaced by bigger and more

modern facilities operating at over 40 percent efficien-

cy, the CO2 emissions generated by power plants in that

range would decline by nearly 25 percent. Experts also

believe that the use of technological innovations could

raise the efficiency of such plants to more than 50 per-

cent by 2020 (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2008,

p.32).

The potential increase in efficiency is even greater

for combined cycle (gas and steam turbine) power

plants. The current average efficiency rating of com-

bined cycle power plants around the world is roughly

40 percent. But thanks to Siemens technology, the

most efficient such plant at the moment was able to

convert 60.75 percent of the inherent energy in natural

gas into electricity in May 2011 — a new world record.

This type of state-of-the-art combined cycle facility can

therefore lower both gas consumption and CO2 emis-

sions by one third. Experts also claim that the use of im-

proved technologies in the form of new materials, for

example, could make it possible to raise efficiency lev-

els to more than 63 percent by 2020.

Energy efficiency is becoming more and more im-

portant in industrial operations as well. According to

the International Energy Agency (IEA), the five most en-

ergy-intensive industrial sectors (iron and steel, ce-

ment, chemicals and petrochemicals, paper and cellu-

lose, and aluminum) now account for 77 percent of

direct industrial CO2 emissions, which translates into

nearly 8.5 billion tons per year. Here as well, efficiency

improvements can accomplish a lot. A study called

“Blue Scenario” developed by the IEA calls for a 24 per-

cent decline in industrial CO2 emissions from 2007 lev-

els by 2050. Analyses conducted by the IEA and the

OECD in 2011 produced various reduction targets to be

achieved by the energy-intensive industries mentioned

above within the framework of the Blue Scenario. For

example, market experts calculate that the global iron

and steel industry could lower its CO2 emissions by

Formulas for Efficiency | Facts and Forecasts

Growing Market for Energy Efficiency Technologies

more than 1.5 billion tons between now and 2050

through the optimization of the smelting process,

among other things. The analyses produced correspon-

ding reduction figures of roughly 1.3 billion tons for the

chemical and petrochemical industry, 0.85 billion tons

for the cement industry, and 0.26 billion tons for the

paper and cellulose industry. The main savings in the

chemical and petrochemical industry (around 0.74 bil-

lion tons) would be achieved through energy-efficiency

improvements.

According to a 2011 study conducted by Roland

Berger Strategy Consultants, higher electricity prices

are one of the key challenges electricity-intensive in-

dustries in Germany will face as a result of the country’s

abandonment of nuclear power. They will also face ris-

ing fuel prices as the country transitions to increased

use of energy from renewable sources. The transition

will also necessitate the upgrading and expansion of

power grids and energy storage systems. In other

words, energy enhancement measures are becoming

more and more important due to inevitable electricity

price increases. Such measures will include the use of

more efficient electric motors and the optimization of

machine and production process control systems,

among other things.

Buildings are another major area that offers great

potential for enhancing energy efficiency. If all of the

world’s office buildings, hospitals, schools, and univer-

sities were renovated in ways that resulted in energy

savings of about 30 percent, total CO2 emissions would

decrease by about 500 million tons a year, according to

As Combined Cycle Power Plants AreAdded, the Average Efficiency of Electricity Generation Increases

20

25

30

35

40

45

Sour

ce: E

ner

data

(20

09)

Projected Growth in Key Energy Efficiency Industries

Sour

ce: B

CC

Res

earc

h (

2011

)

Average efficiency of fossil fuel-fired power plants in %

Share of energy produced by combined cycle power plants

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

AfricaWorldwide

India

OECD Asia

Latin America

North America

Europe

Middle East

Co-gen

erat

ion plants

(elec

tricit

y and

distric

t hea

ting)

Heat-i

nsulat

ed w

indows

Heat-i

nsulat

ed build

ings

Hybrid

/elec

tric v

ehicl

es

Ener

gy pro

duced fr

om w

aste

Lightin

g

Geoth

erm

al hea

t pum

ps

Biomas

s power

plants

Smar

t elec

tric m

eter

s0

20

40

60

80

100

2010 2015

Global market volume in $ billions


Siemens estimates. This figure is equivalent to the total

CO2 emissions generated by the UK today. For example,

savings ranging from 10 to 30 percent can be achieved

through improved heating, air conditioning, and light-

ing systems, whereby the costs of the required meas-

ures could be recouped within six months to three

years. A study commissioned by Siemens to examine

ways of increasing energy efficiency in London found

that building system optimization could reduce CO2

emissions by around 1.9 kilograms per euro spent —

which is five times the savings that can be achieved

with external insulation measures.

Lighting accounts for around 19 percent of global

electricity use. More efficient lighting technologies

could reduce consumption by around one third while

maintaining the same output. Lighting systems account

for 1.3 billion tons of annual worldwide CO2 emissions,

which means that the decline in electricity consumption

resulting from implementation of more efficient sys-

tems would reduce emissions by 450 million tons.

According to a 2011 study conducted by market

consulting firm Pike Research, the global market vol-

ume for energy-efficient building technologies will

probably increase from $68 billion in 2011 to $103.5

billion in 2017. Such technologies include energy-

efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

systems, new lighting concepts, and energy-saving per-

formance contracts that allow customers to pay for effi-

ciency measures in installments that are financed with

the guaranteed energy and operating cost savings

achieved.

Government regulations will help to promote such

efficiency enhancement measures in buildings. The Eu-

ropean Commission, for example, recently adopted a

1970–1990 1990–2010 2010–2030

Less and Less Energy IsNow Being Consumed perUnit of GDP Increase

Global growth rates in %

Gross domestic product(GDP)

Population

Energy consumption

Per capita energy consumption

Energy consumption perunit of GDP

0

-1

-2

1

2

3

4

Sour

ce: B

P En

ergy

Out

look

203

0 (2

011)

Potential Efficiency Gains in Electricity-Intensive Industries

Investment costs largelyconsist of the additional

costs generated by the procurement of more

efficient machines, as well as measures to increase process efficiency in these

industries.Electricity requirementof industry segments in Germany in 2010(in petajoules — PJ)

136

76

63

25

Electricity costs formajor industry seg-

ments in Germany in2010 (in € billions)

2.6

1.5

1.2

0.5

Total energy costs as a share of GDP

3.0

5.75.5

Basic chemicals

Paper and cardboard

Metal production

Soil and stone

Total:~€23 billion

Total:~€102 billion

Investment costs for energy efficiency

measures (in € billions)

~10~7

~5

~1

Cumulative savings between now and2050 (in € billions)

~42

~34

~20

~6

6.0

Sour

ce: R

olan

d Be

rger

Str

ateg

y C

onsu

ltan

ts: E

ffic

ien

cy e

nh

ance

men

t in

ele

ctri

city

-in

ten

sive

indu

stri

es (

2011

)new directive concerning energy efficiency in buildings

that requires all new structures to be certified as “nearly

zero energy buildings” by the end of 2020; their re-

maining low energy requirement is to be covered most-

ly by renewable sources.

An analysis conducted by McKinsey in 2011 found

that many efficient building technologies such as heat

pumps, double and triple-glazed windows, and energy-

efficient lighting systems are already available. Addi-

tional potential can be tapped through systems

equipped with sensors that automatically register when

and where heat or air conditioning is needed at any giv-

en moment. Several other new technologies, such as

active windows that block incoming light when temper-

atures rise and could pay for themselves in less than

three years, are still being developed and might be

commercially available by the end of the decade.

The good news is that China, Russia, and the U.S.

have made significant initial progress in improving their

energy efficiency. China, for example, succeeded in

lowering its CO2 emissions from 1.2 kilograms to 0.5

kilograms per unit of gross domestic product between

1990 and 2009. Among other things, this was accom-

plished by increasing the average efficiency rating of

coal-fired power plants by several percentage points

and improving industrial production processes. For ex-

ample, energy consumption per ton of steel produced

in China declined by 5 percent between 2005 and

2009, and energy consumption in the cement industry

fell by 17 percent per ton of cement manufactured.

Sylvia Trage


Germany’s new energy policy includes far more than just phasing out nuclear power by 2022. The expansion of renewables like wind and solar power (80% of the energy mix by 2050) and the reduction of greenhouse gases (80% by 2050) planned by the German government will require a widerange of measures — measures that will have to fit together perfectly like the parts of a puzzle.

Formulas for Efficiency | Germany’s New Energy Policy

A complex Puzzle

then be fed into the natural gas grid, stored inunderground caverns, reconverted into elec-tricity and used in fuel-cell vehicles. Batteriesin buildings and electric cars can also serve asintermediate storage facilities. Siemens is con-ducting research in all these fields.

4Using high-efficiency, quick-start gaspower plants

When the wind suddenly drops or cloudsmove across the sun, fluctuations in poweroutput have to be quickly offset. This is wherequick-start gas power plants are particularlyeffective. Combined with steam turbines,they’re also extremely efficient. Working to-gether with German energy giant E.ON,Siemens has built the world’s most efficientpower plant in Irsching, Bavaria. The plant,which can convert natural gas into electricityat an efficiency of 60.75%, consumes a thirdless fuel per kilowatt hour than the averagegas power plant worldwide. Substantially cut-ting greenhouse gas emissions, the facility,which can reach its full capacity from standstillin less than 30 minutes, generates 578megawatts of electricity — enough power tomeet the energy needs of a city the size ofBerlin.

5Making coal-fired power plants moreefficient

Coal will continue to be a key pillar of powergeneration worldwide for many years to come— global coal reserves are very extensive andcoal-based energy production is, accordingly,relatively economical. The challenge will bemake power generation from coal cleaner and more efficient. Siemens’ coal-fired powerplants have an efficiency of 46%, with a 50% efficiency expected in the future. Theworld average is currently about 31%. A powerplant with an efficiency of 50% generatesmore than a third less CO2 than the averagepower plant worldwide. Making all the world’scoal-fired power plants that efficient wouldcut carbon emissions by 3.7 billion tons a year— nearly as much CO2 as the entire EU emits in a year.

1Making renewables competitiveIf about half of Germany’s energy is to

come from renewables by 2030 (and some80% by 2050), then they’ll have to be competi-tive without subsidies. This goal can beachieved by wind power, in particular — theinnovations that Siemens Wind Power is cur-rently creating are expected to make electricityfrom wind power as economical as energyfrom coal. These innovations include scimitar-shaped rotor blades, gearless turbines, adap-tive software that optimally adjusts wind loadsto rotors, the automation of productionprocess and ten-megawatt offshore wind tur-bines.

2Building low-loss power superhigh-ways

Renewable resources are best exploited wherethey’re most plentiful: wind on the high seasand sun in warm regions. With power super-highways such as high-voltage direct-current(HVDC) transmission lines, energy can betransported to consumers without substantialloss. For example, a Siemens HVDC system inChina is showing how 5,000 megawatts ofelectricity can be transported over a distanceof 1,400 kilometers with a loss of only about5%. Had conventional alternating-currentpower lines been used, the loss would be twoto three times as high.

3Developing and expanding energystorage facilities

And yet another challenge: as weather condi-tions change, so does the output of wind andsolar systems. That’s why facilities that canstore excess energy for hours, days and, if nec-essary, even weeks, are indispensable. To ex-pand pump storage power plants in Germanywould be very difficult. However, excess elec-tricity can also be used in electrolytic plants togenerate ecofriendly hydrogen, which can


8Saving electricity and using it moreefficiently

The cleanest energy is always the energythat’s not consumed. And here, there’s stillconsiderable potential for savings — in indus-try, for example. Electric motors currently con-sume nearly two-thirds of the power used inindustrial applications — in drives and pumps,for instance. Energy-saving motors and intelli-gent controls from Siemens consume up to60% less power than their conventional coun-terparts. As a result, investments in this areapay for themselves in less than two years.Through insulation, heat pumps, intelligentbuilding technologies and efficient lightingsystems, it’s also possible to achieve substan-tial energy savings in buildings, which accountfor 40% of energy consumption worldwide.Household appliances likewise harbor enor-mous savings potential. Modern appliancesuse less than half the power that comparabledevices did in the 1990s.

9Balancing supply and demandIn most cases, it doesn’t matter if the pow-

er for a refrigerated warehouse or an air con-ditioning system is shut off briefly — just asit’s hardly noticeable if an elevator travelssomewhat more slowly than usual. These arejust two of the many possibilities for cuttingenergy consumption when supplies are lowand prices are high. Known as demand man-agement, this approach eases the burden onpower grids. Siemens researchers are currentlyworking, for example, on building automationsystems that adapt energy consumption toprice fluctuations in real time, thus helpingflatten demand peaks.

10Offering intelligent financingsolutions

Municipalities and cities in particular requireintelligent financing solutions that can enablethem to cut energy consumption substantiallydespite budget constraints. In the area ofbuilding infrastructure modernization, oneproven approach is Siemens’ energy-savingperformance contracting — a combination ofconsulting, installation and financing services.Customers do not need to make any upfrontinvestment; project costs are amortized withthe energy savings achieved. Using this mod-el, Siemens has upgraded more than 4,500 facilities worldwide — generating savings ofroughly €1billion and slashing CO2 emissionsby some 9.7 million tons, or more than theamount emitted annually by a city the size of Munich. Sebastian Webel

6Separating and using CO2 from powerplant waste gas

It’s technically feasible to separate CO2 fromthe waste gas produced by power plants. Al-though underground storage of the CO2 cap-tured in this process is possible, it often facesresistance from local residents. A better solu-tion is to use the captured gas for industrialpurposes. Here, Siemens researchers are work-ing, for example, on algae that convert CO2

into biomass and, thus, into the raw materialsneeded to produce bio-fuel and bio-plastic aswell as on the generation of methane (a com-ponent of natural gas) and methanol from CO2 and hydrogen.

7Making power grids smarterFifteen years ago, there were only a few

hundred energy producers supplying electrici-ty to Germany’s power grids. In the future,there’ll be millions — generating power fromsolar, wind and biomass systems and fromsmall, basement cogeneration units. Today’senergy consumers will increasingly be pro-sumers — both producers and consumers ofelectricity. This fact — coupled with the in-creased use of renewable energy sources thatcause strong fluctuations in electricity prices— will make smart grids indispensable. Withpartners in Germany, Siemens is alreadydemonstrating how these grids will function.Local energy producers in Wildpoldsried, amunicipality in the country’s Allgäu region, are generating twice as much electricity withphotovoltaic, biomass and wind power sys-tems as they consume themselves. They’realso using electric cars. Smart grids are ensur-ing network stability while balancing produc-tion and consumption.

Almost 200 gigawatts of wind power are installed worldwide — enough to power 35 million averagehouseholds in the U.S.. In Germany, one out of every ten kilowatt-hours is generated with wind. But theprice of this power is often higher than that of electricity generated by coal-fired plants. Engineers atSiemens are developing technologies that could radically change the picture.

New Zealand’s West Wind Farm produces

electricity for the same price as coal-fired generation,

mainly thanks to strong winds. However, engineers

like Per Egedal (right) are working on innovations to

make this possible worldwide.

Lower Prices in the Air


from Siemens whose development required ahuge amount of skill and engineering expert-ise. It all starts with the fiberglass rotor blades,which were built as a single unit without anywelding whatsoever. This makes them very ro-bust, as there are no weak points where theblades can break. Sensors installed in the huband nacelle also permanently monitor operat-ing parameters and sound an alarm if suspi-cious deviations are detected. Like all Siemensfacilities, the wind turbines at West Wind Farmare designed to operate for 20 years and there-fore have to be able to withstand hundreds ofmillions of rotations.

Wind power is one of the most promisingrenewable energy sources today. Wind tur-

bines already supply ten percent of the elec-tricity generated in Germany; in Denmark, the“birthplace” of wind power, they account for al-most 25 percent of the electricity produced,and China — now the world’s biggest marketfor wind power facilities — is a major cus-tomer. Worldwide installed wind power outputis currently just under 200 gigawatts, and thisfigure is doubling every three years. The Euro-pean Commission estimates that by 2030 upto 135 gigawatts could be installed in Euro-pean coastal waters alone. That’s almost asmuch as the installed output of all the powerplants in Germany, which totals 170 gigawatts.The Commission believes the share of poweroutput in Europe accounted for by wind facili-

T here’s something special about the 62wind turbines whose rotors turn tirelessly

at West Wind Farm, located 15 kilometers westof New Zealand’s capital, Wellington. For onething, they’ve traveled around the world to gethere from Brande, Denmark — a distance ofroughly 20,000 kilometers. Each of the 62 tur-bines has an output of 2.3 megawatts, whichadds up to a total of 140 megawatts, enoughto supply electricity to 70,000 homes. What’smore, West Wind Farm produces its electricityfor the same price as a coal-fired power plant.

One reason for the competitive price of thisenergy is the powerful, even wind that blowsthrough the Wellington region; another is thefact that the wind turbines are high-tech units

Formulas for Efficiency | Wind Power

should not always turn at full speed, as thiscauses its components to wear out more quick-ly than they’re supposed to. That’s whySiemens wind power units have sensorsmounted on their hubs that monitor bladeloads. Egedal’s software uses these measure-ments to determine the stress load the unit isexposed to at any given time and compare thatvalue with an ideal stress profile. Dependingon the degree of deviation, the software mighttemporarily cut back the unit’s output. “It’smore important for opera-tors that a wind turbine sup-plies electricity for as long aspossible rather than alwaysgenerating as much electric-ity as possible — even whenconditions are tough,” saysEgedal.

Optimal calibration of the rotor blades alsolowers stress on the tower, which means thetower’s steel walls can be made thinner — and“that will quickly reduce the amount of materi-al you need by several percent and thus cutcosts,” says Egedal. These savings can be con-siderable, given that some wind turbines arenow as much as a hundred meters in height.

Egedal has also developed a monitoringprogram that identifies rotor blade damage at

updates, which can be sent through the Inter-net to any of 4,000 monitored turbines.

“Many small steps need to be taken to makewind power competitive,” says Stiesdal. “Ourinnovations cover the whole value chain, frommanufacturing to maintenance.” In the future,for example, individual filaments instead offiberglass mats will be used for molding rotorblades. That makes sense, because it’s verytime-consuming and expensive to weave themats, which are produced by various compa-

nies in Europe, the U.S., and China. Siemenshas already built a 45-meter-long prototype us-ing the filament technique. Plans call for thetechnology to be gradually introduced at theend of 2012, with large-scale productionscheduled to begin in 2014. “This and otherprocess optimization measures that are in thepipeline will cut the cost of rotor blade produc-tion in half,” says Stiesdal.

Less Is More. Gearless wind turbines are an-other innovation created in Brande. Conven-tional wind power units have a gearbox and agenerator that turns quickly — but both can bereplaced with a slowly rotating, high-torquesynchronous generator. The resulting gearlessturbines have only half as many parts as nor-mal turbines. This simplifies maintenance andsubstantially reduces the unit’s weight. Thisapproach saves Siemens and its customersmoney on replacements, because the ma-chines are more reliable. For example, thegearless 6-MW turbine introduced in 2010 ismore than ten tons lighter than a conventional2.3-MW unit. This weight reduction is particu-larly important for offshore wind facilities be-cause their installation costs are very high andthey are difficult to access for repairs.

A Type B52 rotor blade lies outside on theextensive grounds between the productionhalls and the engineering offices in Brande.The blade is a pristine white and 52 meterslong, with an elegant shape that resembles athin whale. “Our rotor blades are the world’sbiggest fiberglass structures built as singlecomponents,” Egedal says proudly. Their pro-duction process is something like baking a cakein a sandbox. First, fiberglass is placed into twomolds, both of which are folded together,evac uated, filled with resin, and heated. Thefiber glass is baked into a rotor blade within 24 hours (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2007,p. 60). Experts then glue small plastic teeth

ties could increase tenfold, from five to 50 per-cent, by 2050. The European Wind Energy As-sociation (EWEA) estimates that annual invest-ment in wind power in the EU will double to€26 billion by 2020. That doesn’t mean we’llbe seeing wind farms everywhere, however, asa large portion of this investment will flow intore-powering — i.e. replacing older units withnew and more powerful turbines.

High Tech in the Countryside. Denmark ishome to one of the global centers for windpower. Brande is a small town that at firstglance looks like a quiet, idyllic hamlet in themidst of a hilly landscape nestled between theNorth and Baltic Seas. At the edge of town,however, is a Siemens facility that has severalthousand employees, including around 500en gineers who develop new solutions for mak-ing wind turbines more efficient and thuscheaper. One of these engineers is Per Egedal,36, who was named Inventor of the Year 2011by Siemens. Thanks to Egedal’s work, SiemensWind Power turbines are now among theworld’s most efficient — and efficiency is thekey to competitiveness. After all, if a turbine’senergy yield rises by one percent, for example,the price for a kilowatt-hour of electricity fallsby one percent. A lot still needs to be done,

however, because a kilowatt-hour of windpower currently costs five to seven euro centson land and 15 cents offshore, due to thehigher installation and maintenance costs. “Weneed to get down to four to five cents per kilo-watt-hour if we’re to compete with coal on aglobal scale,” says Henrik Stiesdal, Chief Tech-nology Officer at Siemens Wind Power. Sties-dal has no doubts that this is possible — forone thing, because of the inventions made byhis colleague Per Egedal.

One of Egedal’s creations is a software pro-gram for regulating wind force on a turbine sothat the unit can operate absolutely undam-aged throughout its service life of 20 years.Despite what lay people might think, a rotor

an early stage by using sensors to measure vi-bration frequencies inside the nacelle. The fre-quency patterns provide information about thecondition of the blades. The software soundsan alarm if a change in the frequency pattern isdetected. Technicians can then decide whetherrepair work is necessary and, if so, what needsto be fixed before other components are dam-aged. Repairs must be carried out as quickly aspossible because the rotors shouldn’t be shutdown for too long.

Siemens turbines are monitored bySiemens’ three worldwide wind power controlcenters, which are located in Brande; Bremen,Germany; and Newcastle, U.K. The controlcenters also manage software installations and

Gearless wind turbines are attractive because they have fewer parts, weigh less, and are more reliable.


has also developed a program that regulatesthe load on each rotor in a wind farm in a man-ner that optimizes overall performance. Windfarms where rotors are placed at only short dis-tance apart tend to experience significant loss-es due to wakes behind the turbine rotors. “Insuch a situation, it makes sense to cut backsomewhat on the power output of the first andsecond turbines in a row,” Egedal explains (seePictures of the Future, Spring 2011, p. 97).

Powerful Future. Bigger, lighter, and morepowerful — there’s still plenty of room to fur-ther optimize wind turbines. Some of the six-megawatt units developed by Stiesdal and histeam were produced in 2011 and are beingtested in Aalborg. Large-scale production willbegin in 2014. The one-megawatt unit next tothe company’s engineering offices in Brandelooks tiny compared to these super turbines.And six megawatts isn’t the end of the story.For some time, Stiesdal and his team havebeen striving to achieve the many small im-provements that will enable construction of aten-megawatt unit with 100-meter-long rotorblades. The higher the output, the more effi-cient the turbines, and the cheaper the price ofelectricity.

There are limits to this megawatt expan-sion, however. “Ten megawatts will likely bethe maximum for offshore turbines,” saysStiesdal, “and don’t expect to see turbines withan output of much more than four megawattsin wind farms on land.” Still, the optimized su-per wind turbines are sure to give coal-firedpower plants a run for their money when itcomes to cost-effectiveness, efficiency, main-tenance-free operation, and longevity — andnot just in New Zealand. Jeanne Rubner


that look like dragon scales along the blades.These ensure that air is pressed onto the rotorblade more strongly — another small detailthat improves efficiency by two to three per-cent.

Production of the 2.3-megawatt genera-tors, which are especially in demand, is alsobeing optimized. An LED display hangs sus-pended in the large hall where the nacelles forthese units are manufactured. The display isactually a clock that reads 1:44 at the momentand counts downwards. It tells workers thatthe current manufacturing step must be com-pleted in this time. In other words, everything

here is clocked like in a car factory. Each pro-duction step takes two hours; after that thecomponent rolls to the next station. It takeseight stations to fit the nacelle shell with its in-terior components, including the gearbox,generator, hydraulic system, computer, meas-uring instruments, and doors. The entireprocess results in a finished nacelle with a pro-truding hub for the rotor blades.

This new system has cut the time it takes tocomplete a single unit from 36 hours in 2010to just 19 hours today, which saves a lot ofmoney. Siemens’ success shows it’s on theright track. Around 800 people were employedin Brande just under ten years ago; today thereare 3,200. The facility used to manufactureturbines with a combined output of 450 mega -

watts each year; now it builds units with a totaloutput of roughly 4,000 megawatts. All of thishas increased the company’s demand forspace, which is why a new manufacturing hallfor 2.3 MW nacelles is now being built.“There’s always some kind of production build-ing going up around here,” says Egedal.

Wind Power employees are busy puttingwind turbine components through enduranceand other tests. Rotor blades, for example, aremade to rock back and forth on a special cranefor three months without stopping — that’sabout two million oscillations. This is howSiemens simulates 20 years or so of operation

to test material durability. Another innovation developed

by Stiesdal’s team was also testedhere: the “Arabian scimitar,” whichis viewed as the rotor blade of thefuture. The blade is slightly curvedand twists under the force of thewind, which reduces load. Known

as “aeroelastic tailored blade” technology (ATB),this new concept is especially useful on thehigh seas, where air masses of up to 100 tonsper second strike the blades, often from differ-ent directions. Elastic blades can adapt to thewind flexibly. And because blade material issubject to less wear and tear, its service life in-creases. The new blade form and its improvedstability make it possible to produce longer ro-tors that generate more energy without an in-crease in aerodynamic load. Indeed, the newblades are 53 meters long, or four meterslonger than their predecessors. “Although theblades are 500 kilograms lighter,” says Stiesdal,“they have a five percent higher energy yield.”

Siemens has other innovations in thepipeline as well. Egedal, the software inventor,

Assembly of a gearless turbine for test operation. Siemens has developed a gearless 6-MW turbine designed specifically for the harsh conditions experienced at sea.

Shaped like a scimitar, the rotorblade of the future twists in tunewith the strength of the wind.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2011 27

Formulas for Efficiency | Combined Cycle Gas Turbines

Siemens’ newest combined cycle power plant converts up to 60.75 percent of the energy contained in natural gas into electricity — a world record. It can be started up and shut down in approximately 30 minutes, which is necessary to compensate for fluctuating infeeds from renewable sources.

The SGT5-8000H gas turbine is the product of

many years of development. Opposite: The 60-hertz

model for use in Florida. Large image: Celebrating the

trial run of the U.S. turbine in Berlin.

Record-Setting Power Plant

History was made in a power plant in May2011. The plant houses a turbine that has

been entered in the Guinness World Recordsand recognized with numerous environmentaland innovation awards. The combined cyclegas turbine — the world’s largest and most ef-ficient system of its kind — is the centerpieceof the Irsching Block 4 power plant in Ger-many. Measuring 13 meters, and weighing444 metric tons, the turbine, following yearsof testing, entered commercial service at E.ON,a power company, on July 22, 2011.

The plant, which has an output of 375megawatts (MW), achieves an efficiency of 40percent. In combination with a steam turbineand a heat recovery steam generator, whichwas specially developed by Siemens, the plantposted a world-record efficiency of 60.75 per-cent with a net output of 578 MW — morethan originally planned. The power plant isthus capable of supplying enough electricityfor a city the size of Berlin, with its 3.4 millioninhabitants. Compared to power plants that

had previously been considered the most ad-vanced, the plant is 2.0 percent more efficient,thus saving about 43,000 metric tons of CO2

per year — equivalent to the emissions ofsome 10,000 mid-size cars traveling 20,000km. And in comparison to the global averagefor the installed fleet of combined cycle powerplants, the new plant uses one third less natu-ral gas and expels one third less CO2 per kilo-watt hour generated.

The speed with which the gas turbine canbe started up and shut down is also un-matched. After being shut down for severalhours, the unit can be brought up to full powerin approximately 30 minutes. This flexibility isthe combined cycle power plant’s secondtrump card alongside its environmental com-patibility. Willibald Fischer, product managerfor the gas turbine, says that “with renewablepower generating facilities, which are nowcoming online in increasing numbers, a cloudor a slight lull in the wind is enough to causefluctuations in the grid. Such fluctuations will

have to be offset very quickly in the future, byusing combined cycle power plants as a back-up solution, for example.”

Backbone for Renewables. Some elementsof Fischer’s scenario are now reality. On sunnydays, photovoltaic systems in Bavaria alreadyprovide over half of the electricity needed, andsignificant expansion of renewable energygenerating facilities is expected during thenext few years.

By as soon as 2020, according to Fischer, itmay be possible to meet Germany’s entire elec-tricity demand for several hours on windy sum-mer days solely with electricity from renewableenergies.

But when the weather changes suddenly,fossil fuel power plants would then have tokick in as quickly as possible. “By 2020 we willneed an additional power plant reserve ofroughly 30 to 50 gigawatts, or 20 to 30 per-cent of Germany’s currently-installed powerplant capacity. Flexible gas-fired power plants

are very well suited for this purpose. Capitalexpenditures are low and natural gas has thebest CO2 balance of any fossil energy source,”says Lothar Balling, general manager for gas-fired power plants.

More than 750 employees, including 250engineers, worked on the development, as-sembly, and testing of the SGT5-8000H and itscombined cycle power plant (see Pictures ofthe Future, Fall 2007, p. 54). Siemens investedover €500 million in a prototype plant before itwas handed over to E.ON.

All in all, the turbine was developed fromthe ground up, rather than being the nextgeneration of an existing model. Most of theeffort that went into achieving the plant’srecord-setting efficiency and flexibility in-volved improvements to the gas turbine andthe overall design.

Engineers increased the turbine’s operatingtemperature, optimized the material and geo -metry of the compressor and turbine blades,reduced air cooling losses, and adapted the

boiler, steam turbine, and generator to the gasturbine. But the engineers’ greatest contribu-tion to the plant’s record-breaking efficiencywas increasing its combustion temperaturefrom about 1,400 degrees Celsius in the previ-ous model to around 1,500 degrees in the newgas turbine. Because the temperature on thesurface of the turbine blades is also corre-spondingly higher, even better protectionagainst heat is needed.

The turbine’s blades are thus made of anickel alloy that solidifies as a single crystal inthe direction of load, making them particularlyresistant to fracture. Next there is a two-layerthermal barrier coating that provides heat in-sulation. The blades’ air cooling characteristicswere also optimized. Developers also opti-mized the blade profiles to reduce lossescaused by turbulence at the tip of the com-pressor blades. They did this by simulating thethree-dimensional fluid dynamics within thecompressor — a particularly challenging casefor computer simulation. Achieving the gasturbine’s high efficiency also requires all of its

components to be optimally matched. Thesteam turbine, for example, (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2008, p. 32) was designedspecifically for the turbine’s exhaust gas tem-perature.

The gigantic size of the heat recovery steamgenerator between the steamturbine and the gas turbine isnecessary in order to efficient-ly convert the huge volume ofexhaust gas into steam. Theboiler weighs 7,000 metrictons and contains heat ex-changers with a surface area of 510,000square meters. “A combined cycle power plantmust be perfectly coordinated down to the lastdetail,” says Fischer. “It’s like a car — the bestengine is worthless if it isn’t matched to theoptimum chassis.”

The Fine Art of Engineering. Developersachieved the plant’s fast startup and shutdowntimes by — among other things — cooling the

gas turbine exclusively with air and hydrauli-cally optimizing the gap between the rotatingblades and the casing. This was achieved byadjusting the position of the rotors by threemillimeters, which, in turn, prevents collisionsbetween the blades and the casing during afast start. This approach to air cooling is bettersuited for the desired flexibility than partial orcomplete steam cooling because it eliminatesthe need to wait for steam generation whenstarting up the turbine. Another secret of theturbine’s success is the combination of thebest technologies from Siemens and the U.S.company Westinghouse, which Siemens ac-quired in 1998. While a superior Siemens tur-bine rotor design was retained, engineerschose to use a Westinghouse combustionchamber because it was easier to test on thetest bed than a combustion chamber fromSiemens.

Thorough testing characterized the entiredevelopment of the SGT5-8000H. The partner-ship with E.ON made it possible to conducttests under actual conditions in Irsching from

2007 to 2009. To precisely analyze the plant’sbehavior, 3,000 sensors were installed for thetest runs. They measured parameters includingpressure and temperature, rotating blade vi-brations, clearance at the tip of the rotatingblades, flows, mechanical stresses, and rota-

tional speeds. The results were used to fine-tune and optimize the SGT5-8000H.

Worldwide Demand. Customers are lining upfor the record-breaking gas turbine. South Ko-rea has ordered three combined cycle powerplant that are scheduled for delivery starting in2012, and a power provider in Florida has ordered six of the new gas turbines in the 60-hertz version, which will allow it to save ap-

proximately $1 billion in operating, mainte -nance, and capital expenditure costs over thelife cycle of the turbines.

Combined cycle power plants in the U.S.currently have an average efficiency of lessthan 40 percent. If all of these units used thenew gas turbine from Siemens, additional elec-tricity equal to that used by 25 million Ameri-cans could be generated each year — withoutcausing additional CO2 emissions. In order tothoroughly test the 60-hertz turbine, Siemensspent over €17 million to upgrade and expandthe testing area at its Berlin gas turbine plant.A turbine for the customer in Florida has beenundergoing extensive testing there since July2011. And the record-chasers at Siemens aredetermined that their turbines will continue tobe champions. “I expect we can improve thecombined cycle power plant’s efficiency by anadditional percentage point in five years usingan even bigger and hotter gas turbine. Thatwill make the technology even more economi-cal and environmentally compatible,” saysBalling. Fenna Bleyl

A U.S. power provider will save about $1 billion over the life cycle ofsix of the record-breaking turbines.

28 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2011

From fast food outlets to soaring office tow-ers, buildings come in all shapes and sizes.

But most of them have two things in common:a voracious appetite for energy and a huge po-tential for efficiency improvement. In fact, ac-cording to U.S. and German government statis-tics, residential and commercial buildingsconsume 40 percent of primary energy world-wide and are responsible for producing 21 per-cent of total carbon dioxide emissions.

How much of this energy could be saved?“Depending on the building, anywhere be-tween 25 and 50 percent,” says ThomasGrünewald, head of Siemens Corporate Tech-nology’s High Performance Building researchproject and an authority on energy-savingtechnologies for buildings and cities.

Statistics from Siemens Retail and Commer-cial Systems (RCS), a U.S. company that spe-cializes in energy management for large chainsof stores, bear him out. In spite of the risingcost of electricity, the company’s customershave seen their electric bills drop between 15and 30 percent (for more, see page 86). With

commercial buildings accounting for 46 per-cent of all the energy consumed by buildingsin the U.S., Site Control’s potential long-termeffect on energy demand could be enormous.

French Fries and an Energy Analysis. Work-ing along similar lines, Reno, Nevada-basedLoadIQ, a startup funded by the Siemens Tech-nology-to-Business Center in Berkeley, Califor-nia, has come up with a technology that couldcut the electric bills of the U.S.’s 70,000 fastfood restaurants by a significant amount. Aftera training phase, the technology uses ad-vanced signal processing to associate changesin power consumption reaching a restaurant’selectric meter with individual devices, such asovens, fryers, and refrigeration units. “The sys-tem looks at the change in power each time anappliance turns on or off,” explains LoadIQCEO Dr. Hampden Kuhns. “Each change is char-acterized by a unique signature. For instance, a50W resistive incandescent light and a 50W in-ductive fluorescent light have completely dif-ferent signatures.” Nevertheless, device identi-

fication can be complicated because many ap-pliances have a variety of cycles. “But we havefound ways of isolating each cycle and then re-combining them as a signature for a single de-vice,” says Kuhns. “This can lead to identifica-tion of distinct activities within a device, suchas an energy-intensive hot water heating cyclein a dishwasher. The technology can even beused in conjunction with a store’s schedule todetect inefficient timing of systems.”

At regular intervals, information regardinga device’s actual energy demand is comparedto its publicized demand and to the electricaldemand of competing devices. Finally, if signif-icant discrepancies are identified, LoadIQ tech-nology can generate a report for the ownerrecommending that the device be serviced orreplaced. The winner of a 2011 CaliforniaClean Tech Open Energy Efficiency Award andrecipient of a National Science Foundation(NSF) Small Business Innovative Research(SBIR) Phase II grant, LoadIQ is about to begintesting its technology in small commercial set-tings.


Spikes in energy demand are forcing power companies to spend billions of dollars on “peaking” facilities that are rarely used. Smart building automation systems capable of trimming demand forelectricity in response to real time variations in prices could collectively shave many demand peaks and help to cost-effectively stabilize entire generation and distribution networks.

Buildings that change their BehaviorFormulas for Efficiency | Load Management

A Siemens Apogee building automation system at a

UC Berkeley research center (this page and left p. 85)

and new technology from LoadlQ (right), help mini-

mize load peaks in electricity distribution networks.

Shaving Demand for Peaking Plants. Theneed to enhance efficiency and reduce electricbills is not limited to individual businesses andconsumers. Indeed, in many countries, the sta-bility of entire electricity generation and distri-bution networks is at stake (see Pictures of theFuture, Fall 2009, p.34). If electrical demandapproaches the limit of capacity, brown outs (adrop in voltage) or rolling blackouts may occur.To avoid such disruptions, power companiesgenerally switch on so-called “peaking” plants.But because such plants are only rarely activat-ed, they are extremely expensive to operate.The result is a sudden spike in the price of elec-tricity that can amount to several hundred per-cent per kWh.

“In the U.S., ten percent of the entire ener-gy generation and distribution infrastructure isthere to provide peaking power that is neededonly one percent of the time,” explains Dr.George Lo, a specialist in automation and a“Siemens Top Innovator” at Siemens CorporateTechnology in Princeton, New Jersey. In viewof this, utilities clearly want to avoid peaks be-cause by doing so they defer the cost of invest-ing in new peaker plants. “Nevertheless,” saysLo, “if we continue down a business-as-usual

path, over the next ten years, the U.S. will haveto build as many as 1,900 additional peakingplants in order to keep up with increasing de-mand.”

But as companies across the U.S. andaround the world develop their own responsesto sudden peaks in electricity prices, they arebeginning to shine light on how the entireproblem of peak demand can be managed.RCS’s IT-based Intelligent Load Management(ILM) building automation platform, for in-stance, not only reduces everyday electricitydemand, but, thanks to its ability to respond tomarket signals from a utility, holds the poten-tial for responding to variations in electricity

prices on a 24/7 basis. Indeed, with a view toextending the ability of Siemens-controlledbuildings to participate in building-to-grid pro-grams, ILM capabilities will be integrated intoSiemens’ Apogee building automation systemproduct later this year, thus allowing thou-sands of Apogee buildings to function as ifthey were a single electricity user, thereforefurther reducing the need for rarely-used peak-ing power plants.

“If significant numbers of buildings were tooperate on this basis, the collective effectwould be the elimination of peaks and an au-tomatic real-time leveling of electrical loads,”says Lo.

A Box that Controls a Building. Figuringout exactly how to achieve that, particularly invery large, multi-use buildings, is one of theambitious goals of energy efficiency experts atSaturdja Dai Hall, the newest research facilityon the campus of the University of California,Berkeley (UCB). Outfitted with a SiemensApogee automation system, Saturdja Dai func-tions as a test bed for building-to-grid tech-nologies such as automated demand response(ADR). In order to ensure that a building’s re-

sponse to changing electricity prices is bothautomated and intelligent, Siemens Corpora-tion, Siemens Corporate Research (CT), andSiemens Building Technologies are workingwith UCB to test a CT-developed “Smart EnergyBox” at Saturdja Dai. “The idea is that when apeak is predicted, the Box goes through a li-brary of scenarios that range from reducedcooling and lighting in non-critical areas to afinely-tuned, distributed response that can in-clude almost anything that’s plugged into awall socket. It takes expected prices andweather conditions into account, includingwhere the sun will be in relation to the build-ing during a DR event,” explains Lo, “Finally, it

chooses the best scenario and implements it.”To achieve such a response without incon-

veniencing building occupants can be a trickytask. It calls for the ability to learn from theschedules, habits and energy priorities of dif-ferent departments within a building. Exclud-ing those areas of a building that are off limitsin terms of power adjustments because of vitalor very high-value functions, the Smart EnergyBox minimizes inconvenience by maximizingthe distribution of its demand response over asmany systems as possible.

Essential to this entire process is a protocolthat allows building automation systems toread ADR signals from utilities. Developed bythe Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory(LBNL) and recently adopted by the U.S. De-partment of Energy, the “OpenADR” protocol israpidly moving toward worldwide acceptanceand may well become the standard for build-ing-to-grid communications. “This is extremelyimportant,” says Prof. David M. Auslander ofthe UCB Mechanical Engineering Departmentand a key advocate of the university’s partici-pation in this technology. “LBNL is testing Ope-nADR at several hundred facilities. And Saturd-ja Dai Hall is one of them — thanks to the

Energy Box. The issue is that the wholesaleprice of electricity varies from minute tominute, but its retail price often looks flat. TheEnergy Box could change that — essentiallytransforming electricity from a fixed part ofoverhead to an expense that can be activelymanaged.”

Adds Saturdja Dai Building Manager Dome-nico Caramagno, “Thousands of buildingscould benefit from this box, not only to shedload during demand-response events and thusbenefit from cash incentives from utilities, butto maximize their energy savings around theclock. That is the direction we are heading.”

Arthur F. Pease


Winter Spring Summer Fall0

20

40

60

80

90100

%

Load shifting

Peakshaving

Underground Storage. On calm or cloudydays, the hydrogen gas could then be retrievedfrom caverns and, for example, burned in acombined-cycle power plant that drives anelectric generator to produce electricity. At themoment, of course, there are no turbines thatcan burn pure hydrogen — but by 2014,Siemens hopes to present a prototype (see Pic-tures of the Future, Fall 2009, p. 7). Althoughapproximately half of the energy produced bywind would be lost during electrolysis and sub-sequent combustion in a gas turbine, wind-mills would no longer have to be shut off be-cause of overcapacity.

What’s more, the problem of fluctuatingpower production would be solved. “In Ger-many, depending on the nature of future pow-er consumption, we will need a maximum of400 cavern reservoirs for hydrogen with a vol-ume of about 500,000 cubic meters each. Atpresent, 200 such reservoirs for natural gascould also be used,” says Wolf. “The maximum60 terawatt-hours of energy that could bestored in these facilities corresponds to aboutten percent of annual demand in Germany.That would be enough to tide consumers overduring relatively long periods of low wind orsolar power production.”

Two small hydrogen caverns in the UK andU.S. have been in operation for years. These fa-cilities have demonstrated that this form of

What a waste! In northern Germany, thewind is blowing — but many rotors in

nearby wind farms are motionless. “Up to 20percent of the time, wind systems on theNorth Sea coast have to be switched off; other-wise they’d produce more power than neededat a given moment,” says Erik Wolf, a technol-ogy strategist for Siemens’ Solar & Hydro Divi-sion. “This indicates a central challenge associ-ated with renewable energies — productionfluctuates as weather conditions change. Inother words, supply isn’t based on demand, asis the case with conventional power plants.” In-deed, Germany’s wind energy trade associa-tion estimates that the German power grid wasunable to accommodate 150 gigawatt-hoursof electrical energy in 2010 simply because itwas already operating at full load.

This explains why wind turbines often re-main inactive during a storm and why older,coal-fired power plants with high carbon diox-ide emissions are reconnected to the grid oncalm days — circumstances that are becomingmore pronounced as Germany produces a larg-er share of its power from the wind and sun.

According to the German Federal Govern-ment, the country expects to meet about 50percent of its total demand for power with re-newable energies by 2030, and to achieve 80percent from such sources by 2050. These tar-gets cannot be met without massive energy


When it comes to power generation and distribution, hydrogen is set to become increasingly im-portant. It will not only store the power from excess electricity generated by wind and solar plantsbut will also serve as a fuel for cars. What’s more, it can be combined with renewably-producedcarbon dioxide to produce a feedstock for plastics production.

Siemens engineers have developed an

electrolyzer based on proton exchange membranes.

It reacts within milliseconds to the available electrical

current — and is thus ideally equipped to handle

power generation fluctuations.

The most versatile Fuel

storage systems — systems capable of captur-ing excess energy when winds are intense andfeeding it back into the grid later when de-mand is high. To meet the future challenges ofan energy system based on renewable ener-gies, a variety of storage technologies is neces-sary – suitable for everything from periods ofseconds or hours to long-term periods of daysor weeks. And Germany is certainly not alone.Many other countries that are now moving to-ward increased use of renewable energysources will also need to augment their powergrids with storage systems.

And when it comes to storing the powerproduced by excess electricity, electrolysis is setto play a key role. Here, water is decomposedinto oxygen and hydrogen gas by means of anelectrical current. At a pressure of 200 bars, theenergy density of the hydrogen gas is compara-ble to that of a lithium-ion battery.

Large quantities of the gas could thus bestored in the underground caverns of saltdomes of the sort used by natural gas suppli-ers as reservoirs, or in the existing natural gasgrid, which can accommodate up to five per-cent hydrogen without difficulty. In purelymathematical terms, the latter could store130 terawatt-hours of electrical energy in theform of hydrogen, which represents almost aquarter of German power consumption peryear.

Formulas for Efficiency | Electrolysis


ing of ten kilowatts, Käppner’s team is nowworking on a new electrolyzer that will have anominal power rating of 0.1 megawatts and apeak rating of 0.3 megawatts. It will producetwo to six kilograms of hydrogen per hour andis scheduled to be operational by the end of2012. “We’ve optimized the design and all theperipherals, such as the control system andthe power supply,” says Käppner, describingthe efforts that brought the system out of thelab and into the field. “We’realso working on reducingcosts considerably with inno-vative materials and structuralfeatures.” Hydrogen produc-tion via electrolysis still costsupwards of €10,000 per kilo-watt of installed load. Butthanks to further refinements in design, Käpp-ner hopes to lower costs to under €1,000 perkilowatt by 2018, at the latest. By then, thethird generation of Siemens electrolyzers isexpected to be able to accommodate up to100 megawatts, thus converting excess wind-generated electricity into hydrogen in largequantities. A 60 to 90-megawatt electrolyzerwould suffice to convert the surplus energy of

a large wind farm. Between the 0.1 megawattmodel and the 100 MW system, Käppner plansto develop an intermediate step. This will be anelectrolyzer with a rated power of two mega -watts. It is scheduled to go into operationaround 2015. In addition to storing energy andstabilizing the grid, the system will be suitablefor use in future automotive filling stations. Thiswould obviate transportation of hydrogen togas stations since the fuel could be producedright at the station — using excess electricityfrom the power grid and tap water. “Renownedautomakers are ready and waiting to start uptheir assembly lines for the production of fuelcell cars,” says Käppner. “And when they do,their cars will run on renewably-produced hy-drogen!”

This highlights one of hydrogen’s major ad-vantage: its versatility. It can be re-convertedinto electricity, it can power cars, or it can be“methanized” — a process in which hydrogen

reacts with carbon dioxide to form methane,the primary constituent of natural gas. Hydro-gen’s energy could thus be stored in the exist-ing gas distribution infrastructure. But it couldalso be used for heating or driving gas-poweredvehicles. “Methanization is a good idea in prin-ciple,” says Siemens expert Wolf. “But the pro -cess is only carbon neutral if both the H2 andthe CO2 come from a renewable source, such asa biomass plant. And don’t forget that the con-

version of hydrogen into methane also requiresenergy — so in terms of energy, it alwaysmakes more sense to use hydrogen directly.”

Gaseous Dream Team. Hydrogen is not onlya perfect energy carrier but also an importantraw material for the chemicals industry — onecurrently obtained almost exclusively from nat-ural gas. On the one hand, the goal must

therefore be to produce hydrogen via renew-able electricity at approximately the same costas its production from natural gas. On the oth-er hand, hydrogen (H2) could one day form areal dream team with the greenhouse gas car-bon dioxide. How CO2 can be used for chemi-cals production in combination with renew-able energies is the subject of a researchproject in which Siemens, RWE, Bayer Technol-ogy Services, Bayer MaterialScience, and tenother partners have been collaborating since2010. Known as CO2RRECT (CO2 Reaction usingRegenerative Energies and Catalytic Technolo-gies), the project has a value of €18 million andis being funded with €11 million from the Ger-man Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The basic idea behind the CO2RRECT projectis that carbon monoxide (CO), which is an im-portant intermediate product of the chemicalsindustry that has traditionally been obtainedfrom fossil energy sources, could instead be

storage is safe. Experts expect that a typical hy-drogen storage facility will cost between €10million and €30 million. Utilities must also in-vest in gas-fired plants that typically require aninvestment of between €50 million and €700million depending on plant output.

Power companies see great potential in hydrogen technology. “We want to sharply re-duce CO2 emissions. So we’re building and de-veloping new, efficient power plant technolo-gies and operating more and more windfarms,” says Dr. Sebastian Bohnes from the re-search department of Germany’s RWE Power.“These days, wind turbine speeds are throt-tled, mostly because of bottlenecks in thepower grid. Efforts to expand the use of re-newable energies could lead to a rapid in-crease in overcapacities. Electrolysis offers aninteresting way to store — in the form of hy-drogen gas — electricity that can not be usedimmediately.”

This presupposes that the electrolyzers thatproduce the energy-rich gas from electricityhave the ability to react quickly to the fluctuat-ing supply of electrical power. So far, the sys-tems, which have a reaction time of a few min-utes, have been too slow.

For years, researchers from Siemens Corpo-rate Technology have therefore been refiningan alternative electrolysis technology that ismuch more flexible. In their electrolyzer, a pro-ton exchange membrane (PEM) separates thetwo electrodes at which oxygen and hydrogenare formed — in contrast to conventional alka-line electrolysis technology (see Pictures of theFuture, Spring 2011, p. 26). “Our PEM elec-trolyzer reacts within milliseconds and can eas-ily handle three times its nominal power ratingfor a while. In other words, even if there’s asharp increase in power generation, it canmake use of the excess power without any diffi-culty,” says Roland Käppner, head of the Hydro-gen Solutions business unit in Siemens’ IndustrySector.

Siemens’ PEM technology is now matureenough to move out of the lab and into practi-cal applications. Building on results from a re-search electrolyzer with a nominal power rat-

A 60-megawatt electrolyzer could convert the surplus energy produced by a large wind farm.

produced from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.with water being generated as a waste prod-uct. “This reaction takes place using specialcatalysts that Bayer is developing with partnersfrom the scientific community,” says DanielWichmann from Bayer, the lead project manag-er for CO2RRECT. “With a different catalyst, it’salso possible to make formic acid, which is alsoan important basic ingredient for organicchemistry.”

The crucial factor in all of this is that CO2

and H2 must be available in sufficient quanti-ties — and that is the responsibility of projectpartners Siemens and RWE. In the Germanstate of North Rhine-Westphalia, energy com-pany RWE operates a lignite-fired power plantat Niederaußem, which is equipped with aflue-gas system that scrubs CO2 out of thepower plant’s emissions. The gas is subse-quently made available to researchers who areinvestigating CO2 utilization.

As part of this work, one of the electrolysiscontainers from Siemens will be set up here inlate 2012 and tested under realistic conditions.“We’re going to simulate grid-specific load pro-files and the infeed characteristic of real windfarms,” says RWE expert Bohnes. “That way wecan figure out whether the electrolyzer will beable to handle fluctuating power supplies.”

From CO2 to Plastics. In Leverkusen, Bayerand its partner Invite are building a test facilitythat is slated to open in late 2013. At the testsite, CO2 and H2 will react to form CO. If theprocess proves to be effective, the CO gener-ated this way could eventually be used on anindustrial scale — for example, for the prof-itable production of isocyanates. These organ-ic compounds can be used as feeder materialfor polyurethane, which is found in everythingfrom automobiles and furniture to insulation.“With the test plant, we want to demonstratethat fluctuating hydrogen production can becombined with the constant processes need-ed by the chemicals industry,” says Wichmann.

CO2RRECT will run until the end of 2013.So far, chemical companies and energy pro-ducers have been benefiting from its results.Power plant operators can make good use ofthe CO2 extracted, instead of just storing it un-derground. They also avoid expenses for emis-sions certificates. Plastics manufacturers, inturn, reduce their dependence on petroleum.And finally, the climate benefits as well.“Through the CO2RRECT process and contin-ued refinements to this technology, it may bepossible to avoid producing several millionmetric tons of CO2 emissions per year in Ger-many,” says Bohnes. “And that would beequivalent to one to two percent of total Ger-man carbon dioxide emissions.”

Christian Buck



In BriefNever has efficient technology been as impor-

tant as it is today. At present, we need not only

to bring climate change under control but also to

address the impending scarcity of resources. Effi-

cient solutions don’t just save raw materials and

energy, they also save money. (p. 12)

China is regarded as this century’s economic

miracle. Yet for a long time, its stunning growth

came at the expense of the environment. But

times have changed. Today, the country’s top

prio rities include boosting efficiency, reducing

emissions, and creating environmentally-sustain-

able cities. Furthermore, Pictures of the Future

spoke with three experts about the future of

China’s energy supply. (pp. 15, 18)

A stable power grid is needed to significantly in-

crease the proportion of fluctuating renewable en-

ergy in the electricity mix. Almost 200 gigawatts of

wind power generation is already installed world-

wide — at full output, that’s equal to 200 large

power plants. But wind power is often more ex-

pensive than electricity from coal-fired plants.

That’s why Siemens engineers are working on new

ways to optimize wind turbines. (p. 24)

Electricity suppliers in the U.S. have to spend bil-

lions of dollars on rarely-needed peak load power

plants that are used only in times of particularly

high power consumption. When applied to large

numbers of buildings, automation systems from

Siemens can change this picture. Such systems ad-

just power consumption in accordance with price

fluctuations in real time, which flattens out de-

mand spikes and helps to stabilize power genera-

tion and distribution networks. (p. 29)

In the future, hydrogen will play an increasingly

important role in the power supply chain — either

as a way to store excess energy produced by wind

and solar power plants or as fuel for cars. What’s

more, the chemical industry can use renewably-

produced hydrogen together with the greenhouse

gas carbon dioxide as a feedstock for polyurethane

and other plastics. (p. 31)

PEOPLE:

Solutions for China:

Martin Klarer, Siemens China

[email protected]

Wind Power:

Henrik Stiesdal, Siemens Energy

[email protected]

Per Egedal, Siemens Energy

[email protected]

Irsching Gas Turbine:

Lothar Balling, Energy

[email protected]

Willibald Fischer, Energy

[email protected]

Energy Optimization of Buildings:

Thomas Grünewald, Corporate Technology

[email protected]

Dr. George Lo, Corporate Technology

[email protected]

Electrolysis:

Erik Wolf, Siemens Energy

[email protected]

Roland Käppner, Siemens Industry

[email protected]

LINKS:

Website Rio+20:

www.uncsd2012.org

Global Footprint Network:

www.footprintnetwork.org

Siemens Renewable Energy:

www.siemens.com/renewables

Webfeature Germany’s new energy policy:

www.siemens.com/entry/cc/en/new-energy-

policy.htm

Webpage Power Plant Irsching:

www.kraftwerk-irsching.com


20352035. A young professor of medicine from Nigeria is shopping for a tailor-made suit in Hamburg. In the process,he gets a look at how products are created in an age ofcomprehensive global networking.

King CustomerThe Next Economy | Scenario 2035

Highlights36 The New Global Economy The Industrial Revolution took place a

long time ago, but radical changes inthe structure of the global economyare still in full swing. Today it’s notonly the emerging markets that areexperiencing an uptick in their

domestic economies. New markets are also taking shape in Colombia and Turkey, which Siemens calls Second Wave Emerging Countries. Pages 36, 47

40 Sugar, Oil and Inventive Minds Brazil’s thirst for energy has inspired

the imagination of the country’s en-gineers, whose technical innovationshave enhanced the efficiency andstability of the energy supply system.

44 Call of the Deep Due to growing demand for fossil fu-

els, oil and gas companies are in-creasingly moving into the deep sea.Here, extraction would be more effi-cient and safer if production facilitieswere located on the sea floor.

50 Sweet Spot Science At Siemens, identifying the ideal locations to place factories is becoming a science.

54 How to Boost Transport Capacity Automation technology is making traffic infrastructures more efficient. In the future, such systems will learn from experience and holistically optimize traffic across regions.

In 2035 hardly any clothing is sold off the

rack. So when Thomas Jones, a professor of

medicine from Nigeria, orders a suit from the

Hamburg branch of a worldwide fashion

chain and asks to have it delivered to him

in Lagos, the company uses Web-based

software solutions to look for the best

combination of growing area, weaving

mill, and processing plant in terms of

costs and climate-friendliness.


Business is booming this afternoon at ashopping mall in Hamburg, Germany.

Thomas Jones, a professor of medicine fromNigeria, has completed his meetings with Ger-man colleagues and is now using the earlyevening hours to look for a new suit. For quitesome time now, buying clothes off the rackhas been a thing of the past. Jones, who isnow 40, knows of this custom only by hearsay.His suit will be not only tailor-made but alsoproduced in an almost fully automatic processthat includes everything from the purchase of

raw materials to production and delivery.What’s more, the entire process is designed tobe environmentally friendly.

Jones smiles expectantly as he enters abranch of an international fashion companythat keeps his measurements — naturally withhis consent — on file. “Good morning,Thomas,” says a young salesman. The last timeJones shopped at a branch of this chain wastwo years ago in his home town, Lagos! Obvi-ously a camera must have scanned his faceand software must have recognized him as he


Rising up from poverty: Foreign direct invest-

ment in Colombia rose by 56 percent in 2011.

Pictured is a 384-meter escalator in Medellín.

During the Industrial Revolution, spinningframes and steam-powered looms turned

clothing manufacture into a highly mecha-nized process. These innovations made north-western England the world’s leading center forthe production of textiles. It also caused thedecline of India’s textile industry, which couldnot compete against the mechanical systems’higher efficiency. Today, 250 years later, theindustrial landscape in England has completelychanged and many world-famous brand iconsfrom the UK are owned by foreigners. Themost prominent examples of this are LandRover and Jaguar, both of which belong to theIndian company Tata Motors.

textiles were produced almost exclusively inlow-wage countries,” he says.

“Now that everything is tailor-made, weonly need relatively small batches of fabric.The only requirement is that the transporta-tion routes have to be as short as possible andthe carbon dioxide balance has to be kept inmind,” Erikson replies. He tells Jones that thecompany almost went bankrupt in the early2020s. Clothing could no longer be offered atrock-bottom prices after countries like Indiaand China started not only producing clothingbut also selling it themselves — and thus keep-ing a large part of the profits.

“My father soon realized that the age ofglobally mass-produced products was over andthat only individualized products could gener-ate a profit,” Erikson recalls. At that time therewas a recession, and lenders weren’t willing toinvest in corporate restructuring.

But Erikson’s grandfather was not preparedto give up. In line with the concept of crowd-funding, he used social networks to find 1,000private investors who believed in his vision of amodern and sustainable fashion firm. Initiallythe company only produced clothing on de-mand, but soon it also incorporated factorssuch as pesticide-free cultivation, fair workingconditions, and sustainable productionprocesses. And because more and more firmswere adopting this approach, the big technolo-gy companies developed new Web-based soft-ware programs that gradually created a com-prehensive network of customers, producers,and raw materials suppliers.

Jones tries on a jacket made of the fabric hehas selected. “It’s very pleasant to wear,” hesays. In a wall “mirror” he sees a picture of him-self wearing the new suit he has ordered.“Hmm, the color’s still not ideal. I think I’ll takea lighter tone,” he says, having changed hismind. Then he realizes that he’s leaving Ham-burg tomorrow and that the suit has to be de-livered to Lagos. “

No problem,” says Erikson, typing this in ona keyboard. Three minutes later, the orderingsystem comes up with a completely new deliv-ery chain. “Your cotton will now come fromChad, and the weaving mill is in Benin,” Erik-son says. The sewing will be done in Nigeria.The design is available to all of the chain’s con-tract tailoring shops via our Web-based servic-es. “The hardest thing was to get all of our sup-pliers to comply with a uniform qualitystandard.” But ever since the governments inWest Africa began focusing on education andprofessional qualification programs, this hasbeen no more problematic than in other coun-tries. “Nowadays a good suit can be producedin the same way on every continent. And it nolonger has to have a dark color!” Erikson con-cludes with a smile. Katrin Nikolaus

stepped into the store just now, uploading hisdata onto the salesman’s information device.

The two men begin a detailed discussion ofsuits. “My grandfather always wore a shirt anda dark suit when he went to his job at his com-pany,” Jones recalls. “Mine too,” replies thesalesman, who turns out to be one of the man-aging directors of the fashion chain. He intro-duces himself as Paul Erikson, the son of thecompany’s founder. At the moment he’sspending a week working at the Hamburgbranch in order to get a sense of what cus-tomers are asking for these days. The marketanalyses he receives are optimally differentiat-ed, but human intuition is still a crucial factorfor a fashion company’s survival.

Jones steps onto a platform and has hismeasurements taken with a laser scanner. Acomputer compares the current data with thedata registered from earlier visits. “Just a bitwider around the hips,” says Erikson with asmile. Then the two men choose a color from atable of more than a hundred shades and de-cide on the desired type of cloth. Jones choos-es a lightweight cotton that will be appropriatefor the Nigerian climate.

Six weeks earlier, Buthan Singh stood in hiscotton field in the state of Punjab in India,checking to see whether his crop was ready forpicking. “We should start the first harvest intwo days,” said his foreman. Singh does notuse fully automated harvesting methods. In-stead, he picks his cotton according to the indi-vidual plants’ degree of maturity. That resultsin much higher quality and earns him goodprices on the world market. The farm has beenowned by Singh and his ancestors for five gen-erations, but only in the past 20 years haveSingh and his family been able to make a goodliving from cotton cultivation. That’s becauseduring this period the government’s subsidiesfor agricultural produce have been graduallyreduced and almost entirely abolished.

Singh sells his harvests via an automaticraw materials exchange. An English weavingmill that specializes in high-quality suit fabricshas bought the first batch. The mill’s cus-tomers consider not only price and quality im-portant; they also look to see how sustainablythe cotton was produced. This informationreaches the end customer by means of producttracking software that works with smart RFIDlabels. Customers need this information in or-der to know how much a purchase adds totheir personal emissions’ account.

“The cotton for this suit comes from Pun-jab,” says Erikson after a quick look at his infor-mation device. “The fabric was manufactured— just a moment — ah yes, in England.”

Jones smiles before replying. “It’s ratherironic that there are weaving mills in Englandonce again, after so many decades in which

creates comparatively well-paid jobs, encour-ages private-sector investment, and paves theway for the economy’s further diversification.That’s where you have to begin in order to sys-tematically generate employment.”

Colombia is a case in point. Although it isnot a major emerging market such as Brazil,Russia, India, or China (the BRIC countries),Colombia has great development potential andis sufficiently large to become an increasinglyattractive market for foreign investments. In2011 foreign direct investments in the countryrose by 56 percent compared to the prior year.

Siemens, which has been operating in this Lat-in American country since 1954, definesColombia and other nations such as Turkey andVietnam as Second Wave Emerging Countries(SEWECs).

These countries are not only experiencingeconomic growth that is well above averagebut also seeing the emergence of new marketsand profitable sites for local production opera-tions. The new Siemens facility in Tenjo nearBogotà, for example, has an extremely effi-cient manufacturing system and meets all ofthe latest environmental standards (see Pic-tures of the Future, Fall 2010, p. 67). The plantspecializes in a number of products, includingdistribution transformers for renewablesources of energy, in particular for large windfarms and solar plants in the U.S. and Canada.The transformers were developed by Siemensengineers in Columbia.

Innovation is increasingly taking place inemerging markets, largely because there is agrowing need to adapt products to local re-quirements. As awareness grows that eachmarket has its own needs, a “one-size-fits-all”approach is becoming a thing of the past. Inthe future, large corporations will have to fur-ther decentralize their structures and process-es and operate in a “multi-local” fashion so thatthey can be at home and innovate in severalplaces at once. For example, Siemens is cur-rently investing around €40 million in a re-search and development center near Moscow.The facility will become part of the Skolkovo

And finally, they determine where the next bigidea will be generated to propel the globaleconomy forward in its continuing process ofcreative destruction.

The overall effect of all of these small stepsis so huge that the global economy is continu-ously changing its appearance. Who could havepredicted China’s rapid rise 30 years ago? Orthe collapse of the Soviet Union? And whowould have thought that much of the massproduction manufacturing sector would mi-grate from Europe and the U.S. to Asia? Or thatpeople today would be using the Internet to

conduct logistics operations — including theordering of pizza — quickly and cost-effec -tively?

“It has become obvious that the structure ofthe global economy is undergoing profoundchanges,” says Dr. Tom Kirchmaier from the Fi-nancial Markets Group at the London School ofEconomics (LSE). “In the future, conventionalindustrial sectors will primarily grow in today’semerging markets. For highly developed coun-tries this means that they will have to generateeven more innovations in order to achievegrowth.”

Due to their global organization, multina-tional technology companies such as Siemenscan benefit from both of these trends. Inwealthy countries, these companies selectivelyinvest in extremely high-quality manufacturingindustries as well as in research and innovationprojects. One example of this is Siemens’ pro-duction of cutting-edge gas turbines in Char-lotte, North Carolina.

Global companies also characteristically es-tablish production facilities in developingcountries and emerging markets. In addition tofulfilling important supplier functions, thesefacilities optimally meet the needs of localmarkets. Manufacturing and production net-works are now being strengthened and mademore efficient worldwide in order to handle in-creasing complexity. The importance of manu-facturing for national eco nomies is empha-sized by Professor Dani Rodrik, an economist atHarvard University, who says, “Manufacturing


The global economy is changing, but one of its fundamental rules still applies:Innovation makes prosperity possible and lasting.

The New Global EconomyThe Next Economy | Trends

The global economy is changing in aprocess that economists describe as creativedestruction. Innovations are making new busi-ness models possible and old ones redundant.Most of these changes are hardly noticeableon their own, because they consist of minorimprovements to production methods, acceler-ated or more cost-effective transportation sys-tems, and increasingly efficient communica-tion systems. But when taken together, thesesteps amount to major trends.

They have an effect on where products aremanufactured as well as how and by whomthey are consumed. They also define wherewealth is created and where it is destroyed.

quired innovations are being designed by high-ly skilled experts.

Creating a Climate for New Ideas. Tomor-row’s talented workers are a company’s great-est asset. Excellently trained engineers havebecome scarce all over the world. But eventhough the market value of these individuals isincreasing, the pressures they face are rising aswell. Many of these jobs therefore come at apersonal price in the form of overwork and ex-haustion, which can lead all the way to com-plete burnout. But there is an economic di-mension to this development as well. Toomuch work and stress at the workplace re-duces employees’ individual performance andcauses them to miss work. The Hamburg Insti-tute of International Economics estimates thatthis results in losses of around €364 billion inGermany alone, or about one sixth of thecountry’s gross domestic product.

That’s why companies are increasingly striv-ing not only to make the most of their best em-ployees’ capabilities but also to make sure thatthose capabilities are maintained at a high lev-el. As a result, work will probably be organizedvery differently in the future than it is today.Experts predict that there will be more projectwork, more freelance employment, and morefreedom, but also more individual responsibili-ty. Companies will create a climate in which itwill be easier to put new ideas and innovationsinto practice than was the case in hierarchicalsystems. The result could be a flood of ideasand innovations that will cause the globaleconomy to boom.

In 1926 the Russian economist Nikolai Kon-dratiev formulated a theory that the economydevelops in decades-long cycles or waves thatprogress from one period of technological in-novation to the next. Such paradigm shiftsopen up new opportunities and boost efficien-cy, thus increasing prosperity. Unfortunately,they also encompass transitional periods inwhich painful adjustments need to be made.“There are many indications that we are onceagain in the midst of such a transformation,”says Tom Kirchmaier. “Small, agile companiesare suddenly appearing in the former centersof North America’s heavy industry. While thefather may have stood at the assembly line inDetroit, his son now programs apps that are indemand worldwide.” The global economy ischanging and enabling new success stories inthe process. These are success stories for entirenations, as well as for individual companiesand individual people. They can be found inMexican hill settlements like Adjuntitas Dosand at Detroit’s brownfield sites. In both cases,this success was due to innovations whosetime had come.

Andreas Kleinschmidt


Innovation Park. The Russian government is setto invest approximately $2.8 billion in the proj-ect during its first three years.

One of Siemens’ long-term aims in invest-ing in emerging markets is to increase thenumber of S.M.A.R.T. products in its globalportfolio. In this context, “S.M.A.R.T.” standsfor “Simple,” “Maintenance-friendly,” “Afford-able,” “Reliable,” and “Timely to market.” In oth-er words, S.M.A.R.T. products are entry-levelproducts that are perfectly tailored to theneeds of specific market segments (see Pic-tures of the Future, Fall 2010, p. 56).

Such products include the SOMATOM SpiritCT scanner. Due to its relatively low price, thescanner will enable many hospitals to offercomputed tomography examinations for thefirst time. In countries such as China, the de-vice will benefit people with access to smallerhospitals only, e.g. in rural areas. Until now,hospitals in such places were rarely equippedwith CT scanners. Economic growth and cost-saving innovations are thus giving millions ofpeople access to high-quality medical care forthe first time.

In Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state, Siemenshas supplied hospitals with 44 ultrasound sys-tems, which have helped to reduce child mor-tality in the region by around five percent overthe past two years. The inhabitants of the vil-lage of Adjuntitas Dos in the Mexican state ofQuerétaro have seen their quality of life im-prove for a completely different reason. In2011 Siemens installed decentralized solarpanels throughout the village, enabling resi-dents to operate electric lamps without any

power outages. As a result, children find it eas-ier to do their homework in the evening, andbetter education lets them improve their long-term income outlook as well .

Controlled Globalization. Stories like theseprovide hope for the future. However, theworld as a whole is obviously still characterizedby great disparities in wealth. Although pros-perity is steadily increasing, so is the gap be-tween rich and poor. At the same time that in-creasing numbers of people are rising abovethe poverty line, more and more people arebeing born into relative poverty due to highbirth rates in developing countries. Howshould the global economy be organized sothat such disparities can be reduced? Do weneed more globalization — or less?

Perhaps the question should be posed dif-ferently, as the problem may not be the level ofglobalization, but the methods for regulating itin order to make better use of its advantagesand minimize its drawbacks. The recent finan-cial crisis has highlighted the risks of insuffi-cient regulation, showing how the inherentdynamics of complex systems can turn theworld upside down in unpredictable ways —and with unexpected speed.

“We are just beginning to understand thedisadvantages of an insufficiently controlledglobalization process, such as the upheavals itcan cause in financial markets. Although mar-kets are a great thing to have, governmentsneed to get them back on track now and then.Financial markets in particular are inherentlyunstable,” says Rodrik.

Until the most serious consequences of thefinancial crisis are behind us, trust and strongpartnerships will therefore be indispensablewhen dealing with financing issues. Siemens isresponding to this challenge by offering cus-tomized financing solutions. A lot will dependon whether regulatory organizations can cre-ate rules to help tame economic processes. Ifthis is possible, emerging markets mightachieve growth that is more sustainable andless susceptible to setbacks. At the same time,wealthy nations might find ways to remainprosperous in spite of shrinking populations.

Innovation remains the most important keyto success in highly developed nations andemerging markets alike. During the IndustrialRevolution, steam-powered looms achieved incredible efficiency increases. Today, similarproductivity potentials can be exploitedthrough even better access to global networksby means of computers, communications, andInternet technologies. Productivity could alsobe increased by restructuring global energyand economic systems in order to better pro-tect the environment and conserve resources.This development has just begun, and the re-

Production and innovation are increasing in countries

such as Brasil, Russia, India, and China.

Companies that want to implement majorinfrastructure projects such as power

plants, airports, or hospitals need steadynerves — not to mention solid financing andcompletely reliable partners. For example, theplanning process for a T-Power combined-cycle(gas and steam) power plant in Belgium beganback in 2005 with the establishment of a newproject company jointly owned by Siemens Fi-nancial Services (SFS), the Belgian firmTessenderlo Chemie, and a project develop-ment company. A consortium of ten bankshandled the remainder of the financing, andthe new joint venture received the first privatepower generation license ever issued by theBelgian government.

But in spite of its strong backing, the projectencountered headwinds. “Just as constructionwas getting started the global financial crisisbroke out,” recalls Hans-Joachim Schulz fromthe SFS Project & Structured Finance Energyunit. Nevertheless, construction proceededwithout delay and none of the project or fi-nancing partners jumped ship. The reason, asSchulz explains, was that “we were in the rightplace at the right time because Belgium’s gov-ernment wanted to increase competition inthe power-generation sector.” Just as impor-tant was the fact that Siemens had entered the€440 million project with 33 percent of the eq-uity capital. “We’ve been working on develop-ment projects for over 20 years with interna-tional partners and have gained a reputationas being absolutely reliable,” says Schulz.

The 430-megawatt combined-cycle plantentered service on schedule in July 2011. Withan efficiency level of over 58 percent, it is oneof Europe’s most modern and efficient facili-ties. Siemens Energy was responsible for con-struction and supplied the main components,including a gas turbine, a steam turbine, and agenerator. Tessenderlo uses about half of theelectricity generated for energy-intensive man-ufacturing processes in its neighboring plant;the rest is fed into the power grid.

“The T-Power plant offers a perfect exampleof how Siemens Financial Services handleslarge-scale infrastructure projects that involvejoint ventures,” says Schulz. SFS always workswith reliable local partners to ensure that con-ditions and requirements such as approval pro-cedures and the participation of neighboringcommunities are taken into account in theplanning process.

This is also the case with the Lincs offshorewind farm now under construction off theeastern coast of the UK (see Pictures of the Fu-ture, Spring 2010, p. 81). Siemens is serving asa financing partner in this project as well — inaddition to supplying wind turbines and gridconnection technologies. “In projects of thisscope, we work with our partners for years,”


says Schulz. Siemens is often connected to aproject over the long term through service andmaintenance contracts.

Modernizing and Saving. Siemens is alsocommitted to the long haul when it comes tofinancing energy system modernization proj-ects. Office buildings, hospitals, schools, anduniversities frequently suffer from investmentlogjams when it comes to state-of-the-artbuilding systems. With this in mind, in 1996the city of Berlin established a partnership withSiemens to upgrade the energy efficiency ofaround 200 public buildings. Instead of de-pending on new funding, the project was fi-nanced through the use of energy perform-ance contracting. Here, Siemens identified thesavings potential associated with energy andbuilding operation costs and implementedmodernization measures (see Pictures of theFuture, Fall 2009, p. 60). The city of Berlin paysfor the upgrades in installments with its con-tractually guaranteed savings. As a result ofthese steps, many buildings have beenequipped with new heating systems, ventila-tion and air conditioning units, and centralizedbuilding management systems.

And Berlin is no exception. In similar proj-ects, Siemens has upgraded 4,500 buildingsworldwide. As a result, operators have savedmore than €1 billion and CO2 emissions havebeen cut by 9.7 million tons.

In addition, SFS takes care of managing in-surable risks — among others, those associat-ed with new technologies that insurance com-panies are willing to underwrite only to a

limited extent. For example, SFS has engi-neered an insurance concept for the world’smost powerful gas turbine in a combined-cyclepower plant in Irsching, Germany, which wasdeveloped and built by Siemens. Says Head ofGas Turbine Product Management Willibald Fis-cher: “Insurance for such a project is vital. Inaddition to normal risks, such as failure tomeet deadlines and construction accidents, in-novative technology also has to be insured. Itwas the early involvement of SFS that made in-surance coverage for our project possible.”

Siemens also helps partner companies fi-nance machinery. For example, SFS’s acquisi-tion of the Vladivostok-based financial compa-ny DeltaLeasing gave it a nationwide networkwith 15 offices. One of those offices is locatedin Samara, Russia’s third-largest industrial cen-ter. Here, ServiceMontageIntegratsiya (SMI),whose headquarters is located in Kazan, hasleased new machines and units for metal pro-cessing from Siemens Finance Russia worth€1.36 million. “Companies in Russia are increas-ingly demanding good service from experi-enced financial partners,” says Oleg Rakitsky,Head of SFS’ Commercial Finance unit in Russia.

Whether it’s a major infrastructure projectsuch as a power plant or an airport, or themodernization of industrial facilities, SiemensFinancial Services and its financing conceptsare helping to drive developments not only inestablished markets, but in emerging ones. Forexample, SFS has established a financial servic-es company in India that will help private com-panies and public investors finance projects byvarious Siemens sectors. Katrin Nikolaus

Siemens Financial Services knows how investments can be put to profitable use — even in a crisis. SFS safely guides largeprojects through volatile financial markets all over the world.

Solid PartnershipsThe Next Economy | Project Financing

Brazil’s hunger for energy is making its engineers ever more inventive. Technological innovations are boosting the efficiency and stability of the power supply. With Siemens’ help, the country is tapping into unconventional energy sources in its fields and under the ocean floor.

In 2009, São Paulo experienced a six-hour

power failure. One way to satisfy increasing

energy demand is to produce electricity

using sugar cane (right page).

Ulisses Candido da Silva Junior gazes out atthe green sea around him. The hills in the

northern part of the Brazilian state of Paranárise like waves and gently slope away as far asthe eye can see. Candido da Silva manages theSanto Inácio Sugar Mill, one of five productionsites of the Alto Alegre Group. He wipes thesweat from his forehead. “The harvest has be-gun; in a few days big trucks will start bringingtons of sugar cane,” he says. His mill will turn itinto raw sugar and alcohol, which is now usedto power almost all Brazilian cars. More thanhalf of the sugarcane produced in Brazil is con-verted into ethanol, which is then used to refilltanks at Brazilian fuel pumps (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2009, p. 90).

The Alto Alegre company is family-owned,a tradition among many Brazilian sugar mills.But changes are now occurring at a brisk pace;international energy companies are buyingtheir way into the market and building largerand more efficient production sites, and thesenew plants are increasingly using automationand state-of-the-art technology. Candido daSilva points to the other side of the Parana-panema River, which separates the states ofParaná and São Paulo. A few kilometers away,


you can see the outlines of another sugar mill.“That mill was bought by a Norwegian compa-ny recently. If we don’t grow, that will happento us too,” says the manager of the Santo Iná-cio mill.

Whether or not it is sustainable to producelarge amounts of fuel from crops is sometimesa subject of heated debate. One thing, at least,is clear: Biofuel is currently being produced inBrazil more efficiently than anywhere else inthe world — because of efficient productionmethods, and not least because of the blazingsun. But comparisons with other countries im-ply that sugar alone won’t satisfy Brazil’s grow-ing hunger for energy. For the sake of compar-ison, a U.S. resident today consumes morethan six times as much energy as a Brazilian.

Six-Hour Blackout. But Brazil is catching upwith U.S. energy demand. The affluence andthe demands of the growing middle-class —which is now said to include half of the popu-lation — are rising steadily. Using a rule ofthumb, observers expect energy demand inemerging markets to increase by about onepercentage point more than the rate of eco-nomic growth. The Brazilian economy grew by

about 7.5 percent in 2010; electricity demandgrew by slightly less than eight percent. Theelectrical grid is already overloaded, and insuf-ficient production capacity is setting the stagefor blackouts.

In 2009, for instance, a blackout crippledSão Paulo for six hours, resulting in economiclosses totaling about $2.5 billion, according toan estimate by Gilberto Schaefer of SiemensEnergy in Brazil. One year later, the lights wentout in parts of eight states in the northeast ofthe country. In view of all this, the 333 sugarmills in the states of São Paulo and Paraná canclearly help in the struggle against blackouts.They can produce not just sugar and alcoholbut electricity as well — something the mill inSanto Inácio is already doing.

The idea is a perfect example of how to useresources efficiently. It begins with sugar pro-duction itself. In several stages, sugar cane iscut, shredded, and crushed. But in the past,the residue that remained after pressing,known as “bagasse,” was considered refuse tobe burned under the open sky at the mills.That is no longer the case, however. “We can’tafford to just squander the sugarcane stalksanymore,” says Candido da Silva, pointing to a

Sugar, Oil and Inventive MindsThe Next Economy | Research in Brazil


the south of Brazil, near Curitiba, in 2011.MSCs are also a perfect example of so-calledS.M.A.R.T. (simple, maintenance friendly, affordable, reliable, and timely to market)products, such as the very affordable, locally-produced capacitors that are perfectly matchedto the needs of market segments at the basiclevel. Indeed, to an ever-increasing extent,such products are being developed in emerg-ing economies (see Picturesof the Future, Spring 2011,p. 56).

Specialists at Siemens Cor-porate Technology in Ger-many have helped to furtheroptimize MSCs. As a result,higher power ratings are nowpossible without increasing the capacitors’ di-mensions. What’s more, Siemens Manage-ment Consulting has helped to formulate abusiness plan for the production, sale and dis-tribution of MSCs, as well as to develop a proj-ect schedule. “For this solution, we’re going tomanage all the international business fromBrazil,” says Tiburcio.

Several export orders have been received.Also, the power capacitor factory in Brazil has

Sugar Power Plants for São Paulo. One sug-ar cane-based power plant is great, but howabout a network of such plants? Such a setup,which is also known as a virtual power plant, isan idea Siemens engineers are now examin-ing. “If we turn more sugar mills in the state ofSão Paulo into power producers and link themto the grid, we could provide an additional 4.5gigawatts,” says Schaefer. For the sake of com-parison, São Paulo’s total electricity demand isapproximately 30 gigawatts.

The strategy of combining multiple smallpower plants into clusters has advantages.Most sugar mills produce only about 30megawatts, and the investments required forconnecting them to the grid would be dispro-portionately high if each mill had to bear themindividually.

But if neighboring plants are connected toone another through mini grids, the connec-tion costs for each individual plant are re-duced. “If we also integrate small, flexible nat-ural gas power plants and small hydropowerplants into the grid, we could raise the amountof power generated by renewable sources toalmost nine gigawatts — and it would be closeto customers in São Paulo,” adds Schaefer.

But such risks, along with the costs associ-ated with manual inspections of individualtransformers at fixed maintenance intervals,are rapidly diminishing. Siemens customerscan now have their transformers monitoredautomatically around the clock. Temperatureand output measurements, for instance, aresent via Internet to a Siemens server; and ananalysis and evaluation of these values is for-

warded to the customer twice per day via faxor e-mail. “We’re online doctors for transform-ers,” says Scaquetti. “We can recommend thatcustomers leave their transformers in servicelonger than planned if they’re in good shape.But we can also warn them — for example, bytelling them that if they don’t do somethingimmediately, there will be problems in the next30 days.” This solution is now being used tomonitor over 120 transformers. The fact that it

pile of bagasse as high as a house. He adds:“Now we burn this waste in a controlled way,and using two 35-megawatt steam turbines,we generate electricity that we can feed backinto the grid. We get about 170 reals permegawatt-hour.” That’s the equivalent ofabout €80.

The company’s initial investment in powergeneration equipment was amortized withintwo years through income from electricitysales. The majority of the equipment needed,including a power substation, frequency con-verter, and process automation for sugar andalcohol production, was supplied by Siemens.Siemens even developed a steam turbine —which is widely used in Brazil — specifically forthis application in sugar factories. And it wasable to cut the turbine’s price compared to al-ternative models by 30 percent (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2009, p. 88).

That would practically rule out the possibilityof blackouts caused by overloads, such as theone that occurred in 2009.

Not far from São Paulo, in the city of Jundi-aí, Carlos Tiburcio, an employee of SiemensEnergy, is working on another idea for stabiliz-ing the power grids in Brazil and other emerg-ing markets. “Of course, you can simply ex-pand the electrical grid, but that takes time; it’salso very expensive,” says Tiburcio.

His cost-saving alternative involves me-chanically switched capacitors (MSC) — in sim-ple terms, a cabinet full of capacitors. As soonas these capacitors are switched on or off me-chanically, they can absorb or release energy inthe blink of an eye. In other words, they canact as buffers for electricity. The MSCs can thusrapidly balance out fluctuations before the latter jeopardize the stability of the grid. Thefirst MSCs from Siemens entered service in

been established as a worldwide provider ofcapacitor banks for Siemens projects. In otherwords, the MSCs are a Brazilian innovation thatis successfully entering the global marketplace.

Dangerous Explosions. Schaefer’s colleaguesin Jundiaí are also working to make the Brazil-ian power supply more efficient. Their solutionextends the service life of transformers and re-duces maintenance costs. “Energy providers inBrazil have to spend a lot of money on newpower plants. So if they can cut maintenancecosts and minimize transformer failures, thereis more left over to invest in renewable ener-gies,” says David Scaquetti of Siemens Energy.“Transformers rarely break down, but if any-thing does go wrong, then it goes wrong in abig way,” Scaquetti adds. That can lead notjust to power failures, but also to the potentialfor dangerous explosions, he says.

Siemens’ customers can now have their transformers monitoredautomatically around the clock.


Prof. Brito Cruz, 55, hasbeen Scientific Director ofthe Fundação de Amparo àPesquisa do Estado de SãoPaulo (FAPESP) — an agencythat intends to boost innovation and promote research and developmentin the Brazilian state of SãoPaulo — since 2005. From2002 to 2005, Cruz wasPresident of the renownedBrazilian university UNI-CAMP, where he earned hisPhD in physics. He earnedhis bachelor’s degree at theInstituto Tecnológico deAeuronáutica. Prof. Cruz hasworked for various researchorganizations, includingAT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey.

Innovation: The Key to Generating Brazil’s economy grew by 7.5 percent in2010. If the country keeps up this pace itcould become one of the world’s top fiveeconomies in 20 years. Today, Brazilmainly exports raw materials. What roledo research and development play in theBrazilian economy?Cruz: Only a small one, unfortunately. Theuniversities are doing good work. Around12,000 doctorate degrees are awarded inBrazil every year, and Brazilian researcherspublish about 30,000 scientific articles in in-ternational publications. An area where there’sstill a problem is the creation and use of rele-vant innovations in business. There’s still in-sufficient communication between academiaand the business community, so a lot of po-tential remains unexploited. Companies anduniversities need to talk to each other moreand do so in a more structured manner.Silva: I agree. There’s no doubt that we Brazil-ians are innovative. Just take a look at the in-dustries for renewable energy sources or avia-tion, for example. Our work there is definitelyworld class. But we are still finding it very diffi-cult on the whole to transform innovationsinto successful products. This is due in part tothe conditions under which entrepreneurshave to work. For example, Brazil ranked127th in the World Bank’s Doing Business In-dex for 2010 — between Mozambique andTanzania. Entrepreneurs have to deal with toomany regulations, prohibitions, and obliga-tions. Business people call this drawback the“custo Brazil,” the “Brazilian surcharge.”

Why is it so difficult to turn an idea intoan innovative product in Brazil?Cruz: It has to do with our history. Until the1980s our country’s top economic objectivewas to replace expensive imports with localproducts. High import tariffs and barriers re-duced competition for local goods, making iteasier for them to hold their own in the mar-ket. Unfortunately, it also enabled low-quality

The Next Economy | Interview

Brazilian products to become successful. It certainly wasn’t a recipe for top quality, and it didn’t serve as an incentive for innovation. A period of great economic uncertainty beganin the 1980s, when inflation skyrocketed. Backthen, a company benefited more from hiring aclever accountant who was good at planningthe cash flow than from recruiting an innova-tive engineer. Many companies are just nowslowly learning how important innovationsare.Silva: There are also some very concrete ob-stacles. They include the fact that many com-panies have innovative technologies and a fea-sible business plan but don’t have access tothe necessary capital. This problem is furtherexacerbated by Brazil’s very high interest rates.What’s more, people whose business idea hasfailed often don’t get a second chance inBrazil. By contrast, if you fail in the U.S., peo-ple don’t immediately consider you a loser;they believe you’ve gained valuable experi-ence. The attitude of many Brazilians — par-ticularly the younger ones — is problematic.Many of them think it’s more desirable to get a cushy job at a government ministry than toestablish one’s own company. Innovation be-gins in your head.

What kinds of problems have you experi-enced in setting up a business in Brazil?Ozires Silva: Recently we tried to launch anew company whose products were a naturallatex-based skin cream and pharmaceuticalapplications. Two researchers at a university inSão Paulo had contacted me in 2002 and toldme that latex contains special proteins thatcan slow down the aging of skin and acceler-ate the healing of wounds. Even though I nowhold several international patents, the banksrefused to give us any money. Instead, myfriends and I have had to pool our savings andtalk to investors from the U.S. The major diffi-culty for the company is the lack of investmentfunds.

was devised in Brazil is no coincidence, Sca-quetti believes. Energy providers here must op-erate even more economically than in the U.S.or Europe, he says. They are therefore evenmore interested in making systematic use ofany available opportunity to reduce costs —without sacrificing safety. More and more

Brazilians agree that careful use of resources iscrucial for the economic development of theircountry. “Sustentabilidade” — sustainability —has become something of a voguish wordused by an increasing number of politicians(see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2010, p. 47).Since new oil reserves were discovered in

2007, however, Brazil must now deal with aseductive abundance too. Located off thecoast of Rio de Janeiro is the Tupi oil field,which could hold up to eight billion barrels ofoil. But the oil is buried deep underground —in some instances, it is located more than fivekilometers below the ocean floor. Reaching it


More Value in Brazil

Prof. Ozires Silva, 81, ispresident of Unimonte, arenowned private universityin the state of São Paulo. Hehelped establish Embraer, aBrazilian aircraft manufac-turer that has been interna-tionally successfully fordecades. Silva has served aschairman of the Boards ofManagement of energycompany Petrobras and theairline Varig. He has alsoserved as Brazil’s Minister ofInfrastructure. Silva studiedaviation engineering at theInstituto Tecnológico deAeuronáutica and was a pilot in the Brazilian air force for four years.

Cruz: I once had my own small company,when I was 19. With my partners we were thefirst to commercially make lasers in Brazil, andwe even sold a few. To some extent, it was abit of tinkering around, of course, and I gave itup when I began to study. But it allowed me tomake enough money as a student to buy a car.Had the economic climate been different backthen, I might not have pursued a career in aca-demia but instead tried to become an entre-preneur.

What sorts of things can Brazil do to be-come more innovative?Cruz: There are some very specific things thatwe can do. For example, we can look at target-ed subsidies and tax incentives. It would makesense to support Brazilian companies a bitwith start-up subsidies in areas where theyhave an advantage. I’m thinking here of com-mercial use of the biodiversity in the Amazonregion by the pharmaceuticals industry, for ex-ample. Other possibilities include the develop-ment of innovative technologies that couldmove us forward in the area of bioenergy ormake offshore oil drilling more efficient. Thesame applies to tax incentives, which shouldmake it easier for companies to invest more ininnovation.Silva: The aviation university where I studiedis an example of how governments can suc-cessfully invest in education. Without this uni-versity and its graduates, we would neverhave been able to establish Embraer, which isnow one of the most successful companies inBrazil. Nevertheless we have to get to the rootof the problem and improve education in gen-eral — from elementary school all the way upto university level. For example, there simplyaren’t enough foreign professors and studentsin our country. Believe it or not, for yearsmany Brazilian colleges were not allowed to employ professors from abroad. That wasone of the results of the protectionist mentality.

What role do big international companiesplay with regard to research and develop-ment in Brazil?Cruz: Foreign companies often bring theirhighly developed innovation culture to ourcountry, and in this way they serve as rolemodels for Brazilian businesses. They also dothis by showing how investments in innova-tion can boost profits. A culture of innovationcan be communicated, for example, when in-ternational companies work closely with localsuppliers, or if people change employers andbring a lot of informal knowledge to their newjobs. More than half of the money spent on re-search and development in Brazil comes frominternational companies such as Siemens.Silva: We must also create innovative compa-nies of our own that can succeed on the worldmarket. And I’m not talking about firms thatextract raw materials out of the ground andship them abroad. We need to generate morevalue within the country, but that isn’t possi-ble without innovation.

After achieving success with aircraftmanufacturer Embraer, in which industrydo you expect Brazil to achieve its nextbig global hit?Silva: Probably in information technology and health. It would obviously be great if ourcountry further expanded its exploration ofour very well known biodiversity.

Which location is better for conductingresearch, São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro?Cruz: Rio is one of the most beautiful cities inthe world and I was born there. We Braziliansjoke that if you live in Rio, during your workinghours you think about where you will enjoyyourself afterwards. In São Paulo, on the otherhand, you think about work while you’re en-joying yourself. But joking aside, both of thesecities are strong centers of innovation that willcomplement each other.

Interview by Andreas Kleinschmidt

means drilling through several layers of rockand a corrosive layer of salt — an ideal chal-lenge for innovative engineers. As a result, Riode Janeiro is becoming a global center for re-search into technologies for the recovery of oilusing drilling equipment at the bottom of thesea at extreme depths (see p. 109).

In view of this, in 2012 Siemens will openits own research and development center spe-cializing in this field at the Parque Tecnológicodo Rio in Rio de Janeiro, on an island known asIlha do Fundão, in the middle of GuanabaraBay. Professor Segen Estefen already has hisoffice on the island. He directs COPPETEC, the

private-sector branch of the UniversidadeFederal do Rio de Janeiro. Among otherthings, COPPETEC facilitates projects betweenprivate companies and the university, and isseen as a driving force behind the technologypark. “Oil opens up a new path for us,” says Estefen. “But we also have to explore the vari-

The deep sea is a remote and forbiddingplace. It’s cold and dark. Blind, pale crabs

skitter across the sea floor and ghostly trans-parent fish float through the water, thousandsof meters below the surface. At these depthsthe water pressure is immense, amounting toseveral hundred bar. Slowly but surely, mankindis advancing into this realm, because large de-posits of oil and natural gas can be found be-neath the sea floor. The International EnergyAgency estimates that global energy demandwill increase by at least one third until 2035,with growth primarily being driven by develop-ments in China and other emerging markets.Renewable sources of energy alone are not ex-pected to be able to cover this demand.

As oil and gas reserves dwindle on land, in-terest in the deep sea is steadily increasing. In2007, 1.4 billion tons of oil were pumped upby offshore facilities worldwide, accountingfor a relatively large share of about 37 percentof total annual output. The situation is similarfor natural gas. Most offshore facilities are locat-ed in comparatively shallow waters, where theaverage depth is just under 100 meters. Butthe oil and gas industry is gradually venturinginto deeper and deeper waters.

Subsea systems are not only safer than

conventional oil and gas extraction processes;

they are also more effective. For example, they

can service more than one well at once.


ous branches we encounter on this path. Inconcrete terms, that means that we have totake the technologies associated with oil ex-traction and further develop them. The goalmust be to turn them into independent fu-ture industries. For example, we must pushthe boundaries forward in the fields of mate-rials technology, smart grid technology, androbotics,” he says.

From the moment the technology park wasfounded, there was huge interest in its land.“We’ve allocated ten percent of the island tocorporate research centers,” says MaurícioGuedes, director of the technology park.“That’s 350,000 square meters in all, but wevery quickly had more interested parties thanavailable space.” Part of the site is reserved fora high-rise in which small, innovative compa-nies can rent space and grow. “In order to en-sure an appropriately diverse, innovative cli-mate, we need areas for both small and largeprojects,” he says. Siemens is devoting itself tothe latter — in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil as awhole.

A Siemens R&D Center in Rio. Betweennow and 2016, Siemens will invest $600 mil-lion in the country. The company’s Rio R&Dcenter alone involves an investment of $50million. At least 800 people will be employedthere, around 150 of whom will be working inresearch and development within the nextthree years. Some of these people will comefrom Chemtech, a fully-owned Siemens sub-

sidiary. Chemtech has been involved in Petro-bras projects for many years and was namedBrazil’s most innovative company in 2009 (seep. 111).

“At Chemtech, we have a great deal of ex-pertise in software development, in planningrefineries, and in supplying equipment for off-shore projects,” says company CEO DanielMoczydlower. “For example, we have suppliedinstrumentation and monitoring systems foroil platforms.” In the future, his team will formpart of an international network of innovationand will work with Siemens in places such asNorway and Houston to develop subsea solu-tions (see p. 108).

All in all, Siemens’ prospects in Brazil arebright. One major challenge, however, isfinding enough people for its new projects.The salaries of researchers and engineers arerising all the time, and their private-sectorcompensation is already five times higherthan the income of doctoral students. In-stead of studying for a doctorate, many stu-dents therefore go straight to work for com-panies.

Giovanni Fiorentino, Chairman for LatinAmerica at consulting firm Bain has this to sayof the competition for talent in Rio: “It’s ahuge challenge because everybody is com-peting for the same resources.” And hedoesn’t mean sugar or oil, but well-trainedspecialists — who may turn out to be Brazil’smost valuable resource.

Andreas Kleinschmidt

Much of Brazil’s Oil is Five Km beneath the Sea Floor

Brazil’s Tupi field (above, right) may hold up to

8 billion barrels of oil. Extraction will require new

technologies. Petrobras (below right) is working

with other companies to develop solutions.

Ocean 0 m

”Post-salt” layer”

Salt layer

“Pre-salt” layer

1000 m

2000 m

3000 m

4000 m

5000 m

6000 m

7000 m


The Next Economy | Oil and Gas Production

Most subsea deposits are still extractedfrom the surface. Compressors and pumps onthe decks of platforms and drill ships press oiland natural gas out of reservoirs and pump itup from the sea floor through kilometer-longpipes. After reaching the surface, the oil iscleaned and processed.

But according to experts it would be muchmore profitable and safer if the extraction sys-tems were not located on drilling rigs and plat-forms that are susceptible to storms, but in-stead directly on the sea floor. Not only coulddeposits be exploited more easily if pumps andcompressors were located closer to boreholes;the mixture of oil, sand, and water could alsobe cleaned and processed at the source.

In addition, such subsea installations wouldnot only require less extraction technologythan do surface platforms but could cover alarger area. A drilling rig has a limited radius inwhich it can extract fuel. If all its associatedpumps and compressors were located on thesea floor instead, oil could be pumped out by acentral extraction system from numerous bore-holes in a wide radius and then pumped up tothe surface. Such a system would reduce thenumber of pumping stations required and

therefore significantly lower the risk of leaks.The processing of oil and gas in the deep seaalready generates slightly more than $20 bil-lion in sales, and Siemens estimates that thismarket could double by 2020.

A Grid for the Sea Floor. “As specialists forpower supply and transmission systems, weare in the process of developing a completesubsea power grid with which subsea process-ing equipment can be controlled and suppliedwith electricity,” says Atle Strømme, SeniorVice President and Head of Subsea Solutions atSiemens Energy.

Siemens also plans to develop compressorssuited for deep sea use. In such a deep sea elec-tricity supply system, all of the electrical devicesfor controlling pumps and compressors wouldbe located close to one another right on thesea floor. Such a system would primarily in-clude transformers, variable speed drives, andswitchgear.

Although such a complete subsea system isnot yet fully developed, Siemens has alreadysupplied individual components for underwaterapplications. Since the late 1990s Siemens hassupplied transformers for use at a depth of

1,000 meters off the Brazilian coast. However,power supply systems are still generally foundon platforms or on land, depending on the loca-tion of the oil and gas deposits. Only a fewcomponents are installed on the sea floor.However, compact facilities on the sea floorwould have substantial advantages, since theywould require only a single supply line totransmit electricity to the area in question.“Components would be attached to a commontemplate on the sea floor,” says Bjørn EinarBrath, Senior Vice President at Siemens Ener-gy. “They could then be centrally monitoredand supplied with electricity.”

With the help of an optical data cable, asubsea facility could also be operated and con-trolled from a service station on land. In addi-tion, the cable could be used to transmit datafrom numerous surveillance sensors, enablinghigh-tech equipment to continuously monitorthe system. “The template concept would bevery beneficial in terms of maintenance,” saysBrath. “In such a situation, Remote OperatedVehicles (ROV) could safely disassemble indi-vidual components on the standard template.”

Over the next few years Siemens plans todevelop a subsea grid to prepare it for every-

The Call of the DeepDue to growing demand for fossil fuels, oil and gas companies are increasingly moving into the deep sea.Here, extraction would be more efficient and safer if production facilities were located on the sea floor.Siemens wants to provide reliable power systems supporting extraction technology making this possible.


day use. The first practical test of a completesystem is scheduled to begin by early 2013,with full commercial availability planned for2014. Until then, the main task will be to prop-erly seal components against water intrusionand protect them against the tremendouspressures found on ocean floors.

With this in mind, Siemens has entered intoa partnership with several key energy compa-nies lead by Chevron but also including Statoil,Petrobras, Exxon and Shell to develop a deepsea power grid to supply oil pumps and gascompressors with exactly the right operatingvoltage. The core components will be filledwith oil to offset the water pressure.

Frequency converters and other compo-nents are usually installed in casings on landbefore they are lowered into the water. Al-though this approach works well in shallowseas, a conventional air-filled container has tobe very large to withstand the pressures at adepth of several thousand meters. By contrast,a frequency converter within an oil-filled hous-ing is much easier to handle.

The Deepwater Market. Because Siemens re-gards deep sea production as a promising mar-ket, it acquired Bennex and Poseidon, two medi-um-sized Norwegian subsea companies about ayear ago. Bennex, which is based in Bergen, hasspecialized in manufacturing electrical compo-nents, cables, and connections for use at greatdepths. Poseidon, which has its headquarters

in Stavanger, is an engineering company thatspecializes in subsea assignments. Among oth-er things, it modifies technologies for a rangeof underwater applications.

The companies are now working togetherto plan a subsea grid in detail. And far more isat stake than just big components. At greatdepths, even minor details can make a hugedifference. Experts from Bennex and Poseidonare highly skilled in developing solutions fordeep sea environments. Their company’s productrange includes water tight titanium connections,durable power cables with acopper core, glass-fiber re-inforced epoxy casings, anddoubly secured contactswith rubber seals and pro-tective covers made of stain-less steel. In March 2012,Siemens announced that it isacquiring the Connectors and MeasurementsDivsion of Expro Holdings UK. The unit engi-neers and manufactures subsea componentssuch as cable connectors, sensors and measur-ing devices. This equipment forms a crucialpart of the power grid. These electrical connec-tors enable both power transmission and com-munication on subsea installations.

But even a power electrical supply system isnot enough to extract raw materials. That’s whySiemens also offers a very robust compressor fortransporting gas. Known as the STC-ECO, thedevice was initially conceived for use on land.

But since 2006 it has been used to pump natu-ral gas from a field in the Netherlands into thecountry’s supply network. The fact that the ma-chine doesn’t need any seals makes it ideal foruse in the deep sea. Unlike conventional com-pressors, where the drive motor and the naturalgas compressor are separate, STC-ECO’s keycomponents are located in the same capsule.The motor is usually connected to the com-pressor housing by a drive shaft. As a result,the location where the shaft penetrates thehousing has to be reliably sealed. The STC-ECO, by contrast, doesn’t need any seals and istherefore ideally suited for deep sea use.

“High reliability is essential underwater,” saysBrath. Repairs require special ships, which areextremely expensive. Components thereforemust be able to operate nonstop and withoutany defects. The STC-ECO, for example, is de-signed to operate under water around the clockfor at least five years without any maintenance.

The system operated by Siemens in theNetherlands already meets these requirements.And its bearings do not need lubrication withoil. This is important, because an oil change isimpossible on the sea floor. Instead, the sys-tem uses electrically excited magnetic bearingsin which the shaft effectively “floats.” Improve-ments in the reliability of the bearings’ electri-cal control are now planned, so that subseaoperation will become even more reliable.Touchdown bearings made of small ceramicballs that catch the shaft in the event that themagnetic control fails are also to be further op-timized. The complete system will thus be sub-jected to even more intensive stress tests. Itwill take at least three years of developmentand testing before the system is ready for deepsea use.

Oil extraction at great depths is more expen-sive than comparable operations on land. But

subsea facilities can improve the exploitationof gas and oil fields, thus substantially increas-ing profits and reducing costs. That’s reasonenough to expand the company’s research ac-tivities in this field. Siemens has established part-nerships with government research institutes inSingapore and Brazil and has set up its own labsin Houston, Texas, and Trondheim, Norway. “Weare not only focusing on the technology,” saysStrømme. “Training is also a major concern. Afterall, only a few engineers worldwide currentlyspecialize in subsea applications.”

Tim Schröder

Siemens’ STC-ECO subsea compressorhas to operate underwater for at leastfive years without maintenance.

Future seafloor extraction facility. To ensure reliability, subsea systems will require the sort

of expert engineering featured in the STC-ECO compressor (above) and cooling technology from

Siemens inventor Wolfgang Zacharias.


Brazil has been experiencing rapid econom-ic growth for years. In 2011, according to a

report issued in December of that year by theLondon-based Centre for Economics and Busi-ness Research, it overtook the UK to becomethe world’s sixth-largest economy. The discov-ery of new oil deposits is contributing to thistrend, enabling Brazil to make substantial in-vestments in new infrastructure — especiallypower supply systems, which have long been aweak spot in the country’s development. How-ever, special converter stations and high-per-formance transformers are still needed forhigh-voltage direct current transmission lines(HVDC), which transport energy across largedistances (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2011,p. 5; Fall 2009, p. 25).

Since 2006, Siemens has been able to man-ufacture all of the necessary components forthe country’s power transmission needs at itsown facility in Brazil. That gives the company amajor competitive edge. “Transport costs arevery high in HVDC projects,” says TamyresMachado, Technical Director at the Siemensplant in Jundiaí, near São Paulo, the biggestproduction facility for energy systems in SouthAmerica. The transformers alone, which stepup direct current to as much as 800,000 voltsfor transmission, are almost as big as a single-family house and weigh around 100 tons. “Webuild everything here in Brazil, so we’re able tooffer a good price,” says Machado.

Local Design. Jundiaí is one of five Siemenslocations around the world that manufactureHVDC systems. “We’re number two afterNuremberg, Germany, in terms of know-how,”

Machado says proudly. “Brazil urgently needsmore energy — and the best way to get it iswith hydroelectric power plus HVDC.” New“power highways” are also being planned inChile and other Latin American countries, andthe U.S. is expanding its use of this technologyas well. “We’re manufacturing two transform-ers for a planned HVDC link between New Yorkand New Jersey,” Machado says.

Machado first had to set up a local team todevelop the expertise required for this sophisti-cated technology. This team consisted of agroup of experienced Siemens specialists, someof them from Germany, as well as Brazilian ex-perts and talented and motivated young profes-sionals. “It’s becoming more and more difficultto find qualified technical personnel, which iswhy we’re increasingly training people our-selves,” says Carlos Tiburcio, Director of PowerTransmission Sales at Siemens in São Paulo.

The Jundiaí plant has therefore set up in-ternship programs and established partner-ships with technical colleges and universitiesin order to ensure that the workforce remainscompletely up to date. This approach also in-cludes sending employees to headquarters inGermany. Machado sent 25 engineers to workat the plant in Nuremberg for two to threeyears in order to prepare them for their firstproject — a new HVDC link between the Span-ish mainland and the island of Majorca. Theproject was launched in 2009.

The team built converter stations for theCometa line, which is now transporting energyproduced from mainland wind, solar, and hy-droelectric power plants to Majorca, therebycovering a large portion of the island’s electric-

ity requirements. The Majorca project, whichtransmits 400 megawatts at 250 kilovolts, wasrelatively small by international standards, butit nevertheless served as a good pilot projectfor setting up the required manufacturing ca-pacity in Brazil and building complex test fieldsfor transformers.

The Brazilian facility originally utilizedHVDC technology from Siemens in Nuremberg.“But our engineers have also been working ontheir own developments and making adjust-ments in order to meet the specific needs of lo-cal markets,” Tiburcio explains. “In some cases,these changes have almost led to the creationof a completely new product design.”

Brazil is an exceptional case because of thelong distances over which its electricity mustbe transmitted. One planned project involvestwo parallel lines for moving a total of 11 gi-gawatts of power across more than 2,000 kilo-meters — which would set a new world record.“The operation of such parallel transmissionlines and the converter stations at both endsmust be carefully coordinated in order to en-sure grid stability,” Tiburcio explains. Siemensfacilities for HVDC technology in Nuremberg,Jundiaí, Kalwa (India), Zagreb (Croatia) andGuangzhou (China) maintain constant contactwith one another in order to share informationand ensure that all of them benefit from thenew expertise each develops.

Motors that Don’t Mind Tropical Weather.Siemens is also investing in new facilities inColombia in the north of South America,which has undergone rapid economic growthover the last few years and is considered to be

Booming nations such as Brazil and Colombia are transforming themselves from raw materials suppliers to manufacturers of high-tech products. Siemens is continually expanding its presence inthese countries by creating efficient and high-quality products for local markets and export.

Full Steam AheadThe Next Economy | Latin America

In Brazil, Siemens makes capacitors for

HVDC transmission lines. In Columbia, the company

has produced power transformers since 1956.


an insider tip by investors. Rating agencieshave raised Colombia to “Investment Grade,”which means the country is now viewed as asafe place to invest. Foreign direct investmentin Colombia did in fact increase by 56 percentin 2011. Export revenues have also reachedrecord levels thanks to high prices for raw ma-terials. Siemens has been present in Colombiasince 1954. In 2009 it opened a state-of-the-art electric motor factory in Tenjo, near thecapital, Bogotá. The facility has an extremelyefficient manufacturing system and meets allthe latest environmental standards.

The plant, which received lots of help dur-ing its ramp-up phase from a sister facility inBad Neustadt, Germany, began producingelectric motors of various sizes and perform-ance classes in May 2011. The motors can beused in sectors ranging from food productionto the oil and gas industry. “Siemens is now thefirst company in Colombia that manufacturesmotors boasting the highest international effi-ciency standards,” says Wilson Ruiz, who is re-sponsible for industrial motor sales in Tenjo. Inaddition to their lower energy use, the Colom-bian motors also have other advantages — forexample, they’re impervious to tropical weath-er and their voltage and dimensions meet therequirements of local customers.

The Tenjo plant has already landed threemajor orders. The first was placed by the Gras-co Group — one of Colombia’s biggest compa-nies — for 200 particularly robust special mo-tors that are oscillation- and dust-resistant,among other things. “They’re being used to re-place older motors in pumps, mills, mixing ma-chines, and production lines in Grasco’s oil andbutter factory,” says Ruiz.

Siemens was chosen from among numer-ous bidders because of its motors’ high effi-ciency and their good compatibility. “Anotherkey point was the local support we offer,” addsRuiz, who stresses how enormously importantdirect contact with the customer is in such situ-ations. “Customers appreciate our local serv-ice. Having a factory near them is a key advan-

tage,” he says. Siemens also helped Frito Layconduct an energy consumption study that ledthe potato chip and snack manufacturer to re-place many of its old motors with efficientelectric ones from Siemens. Cemex, an inter-national cement manufacturer, opted forSiemens motors mainly because of their greatreliability. “Our new motors will significantlyreduce downtime at that company’s packagingfacilities,” says Ruiz.

Energy suppliers and industry aren’t theonly booming sectors in the emerging marketsof South America; demand for healthcare solu-tions is also rising. Siemens began manufactur-ing entry-level X-ray machines in Brazil tenyears ago. “We decided to produce inside thecountry so that we could compete locally withaggressive pricing,” says Guilherme Marques,Director of the Clinical Products Department atSiemens in Brazil. A Siemens plant in São Paulomanufactures Multix B analog X-ray machinesthat are known for their flexibility and compactdesign. They also deliver outstanding imagequality and minimal radiation. The devices aresold in Brazil where they fulfill customer re-quirements as well as price expectations.

In order to meet rising demand, productionvolumes will be increased in 2012. “In June,we’ll move into a new factory in Joinville,which will make us more competitive and willboost local know-how. We also plan to expandour product portfolio,” Marques reports.Brazilian customer interest in digital X-ray tech-nology has increased, but price has been a bar-rier. With this in mind, Siemens’ entry-levelMultix Select DR digital X-ray machine will bemanufactured at the site. The machine willprovide an affordable digital solution that isnot only robust, but easy to operate. Further-more, CT and MR systems for the local marketwill also be produced in Joinville. To support itslocal activities, but also because of its long-term commitment to the country, Siemens in-tends to conduct associated work at Joinville.Development activities for local and regionalmarkets will increasingly be conducted on-site.

This is already the case to some extent atSiemens’ plant in Tenjo, Colombia, althoughthe facility still relies on German expertise forits new motors. Siemens has been buildingtransformers in Colombia since 1956 — every-thing from small systems for power distribu-tion to large high-performance units. Over thelast two years, the Tenjo plant has specializingin production of distribution transformers forrenewable energy facilities. “This market isgrowing rapidly, particularly in the U.S. andCanada,” says Head of Transformer MarketingAndrés Villate.

Extreme Conditions. Colombia has largeports on its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, whichputs it in a strategic position for exporting toNorth America. Colombian engineers werelargely responsible for developing the high-performance transformers produced in Tenjo.

Their biggest challenge was the unfavor-able weather conditions in which the unitsneed to operate. “Most wind farms in NorthAmerica are located in remote areas oftenmarked by extreme temperatures and highwinds. That means that their transformersneed to be particularly reliable,” says Villate.

Specialized transformers for use in renew-able energy generation systems are in greatdemand. As Tenjo Sales Director Jairo Sandovalreports, Siemens delivered 41 transformers tothe Flat Water wind farm in Nebraska at thebeginning of 2011. The First Light Project —the largest solar park in Canada — has orderedten transformers. “These units only account forten percent of our production at the moment,but that figure is sure to increase over the nextfew years,” says Sandoval.

Siemens pays close attention to the envi-ronmental compatibility of all of its products,which is why Colombian engineers are nowtesting the use of vegetable oil as a coolantand insulating fluid for the first time in SouthAmerica. Mineral or silicone oil is normally uti-lized for these purposes in transformers, butthe substances are harmful to the environ-ment, which is why transformers out in theopen need to be protected against leaks. “Theoils that we’re currently testing don’t containany mineral oils or halogens, silicone oils, orother problematic substances,” Villate says.“They also stand out through their high flashpoint and good dielectric properties.” State-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly technologyand high efficiency are attributes that cus-tomers around the world appreciate inSiemens products — and North and SouthAmerica are no different in this regard.Through its growing presence in local markets,Siemens is now in a perfect position to provideSouth American customers with the right solu-tions. Ute KehseTransformers from Columbia (left) or X-ray Equipment from Brazil: South America’s products are in demand.


Dell Children’s Medical Center of CentralTexas is the first healthcare facility in the

world to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy& Environmental Design) Platinum Certifica-tion from the U.S. Green Building Council.With over 46,000 square meters, the facility,which is located in Austin, Texas, is the largestpediatric hospital in the region. Dell’s campusopened in July 2007 and is part of the SetonFamily of Hospitals, the largest health-careprovider in central Texas.

Hospitals are tremendous energy users. Infact, according to statistics furnished by theU.S. Department of Energy in 2009, hospitalsin the U.S. required 2.5 times as much energyand emitted 2.5 times as much carbon dioxideas commercial office buildings.

This makes the LEED achievement all themore significant, says Phil Risner, PE (Profes-sional Engineer) and LEED AP (Accredited Pro-fessional) project manager and building sys-tems network engineer for Seton. “We had avision for LEED Platinum, as we sought to cre-ate the optimum environment for our patientsas well as our employees. There was no doubtin our minds that being green had real, posi-tive effects on both the environment and ourhealthcare delivery capability,” Risner said.

Alan Bell, AIA (American Institute of Archi-tects) and Seton’s LEED AP director of Design& Construction, echoed that sentiment.“Some parts of this 169-bed facility wereopened in mid-2007. Then nearly two yearslater, we received the official LEED PlatinumCertification in early 2009. To achieve thisgoal, we were rated in the six key LEED cate-gories: Sustainable Site Development, Water

Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materialsand Resources, Indoor Air Quality, and Innova-tion & Design.” Here a key issue was the con-ception, integration, and implementation ofthe building automation system (BAS).

Complete Solution. Seton selected theBuilding Technologies Division of Siemens In-dustry, Inc. to install and integrate Siemens’APOGEE suite of building automation and con-trols across the new facility. APOGEE is anoverall building system and energy manage-ment solution that includes fire detection andalarm and emergency air handling systemcontrol. It is designed to tightly integrate sys-tems as diverse as security access, staff com-munications, emergency power, fire detectionand suppression, IT and, of course, lighting. Inthe Dell clinic BAS monitors a range of energyconsumers, including pumps, fans, coolingsystems, hot-water systems and the 60,000-liter therapy pool of the clinic’s rehabilitationcenter.

Austin’s subtropical weather conditionspose a constant challenge to maintaining in-door air quality. In view of this, Siemens BASclosely monitors and controls Dell’s air condi-tioning and use of outside air, as well as ad-justing air-handling devices based on prede-termined night setback and other occupancyconditions. The system automatically gener-ates daily reports on any failed setpoints orspecific location abnormalities throughout thefacility, thus helping service engineers to keepsystems running optimally while meeting reg-ulatory requirements for air purity and quality.BAS also controls the building’s own highly

efficient 4.5 MW cogeneration unit and pro-vides the information needed to make com-plex energy-related decisions. As a result, sig-nificant energy savings have already beenmade. “Thanks to Siemens’ expertise, it hasbeen possible to introduce a range of newtechnologies,” says Bell. For comparison, theenergy efficiencies achieved at Dell Children’scurrently save enough energy to power ap-proximately 1,800 Austin homes.

Right Environment for Personnel. “Unfor-tunately, there are a lot of times that you can’tnecessarily cure an illness, but you can alwaysheal the soul and that’s what we try to do,”says Sister Teresa George, Dell Children’s VicePresident and CEO. “We try to do it with staff;we try to do it with our programs and ourwork environment.“

Dell’s good reputation as a “green” hospitalattracts highly motivated and well-trained per-sonnel — including specialized pediatriciansand nurses. Personnel fluctuation is very low.Overall in the U.S. between ten and 15 per-cent of healthcare employees change peryear. But the figure for Dell’s nurses is just 2.4 percent. Employee productivity is alsohigher. Seton estimates that all these effectstogether have resulted in savings equivalentto an entire year’s energy bill.

Steven E. Kuehn

Pediatric patients get first-class treatment

at Dell Children’s Medical Center in

Austin, Texas. The facility is a leader

in energy and water efficiency.

From independent power supplies and water management to fire safety and air purity controls,hospitals require absolutely dependable systems. Thanks to building automation systems fromSiemens, Dell Children’s Medical Center of central Texas is not only exceptionally efficient, but has also become the world’s first LEED Platinum Hospital.

Exceptional EfficiencyThe Next Economy | Hospitals

International companies not only serve global sales markets but also manufacture their products in many countries. At Siemens, identifying the optimal locations to place factories and thus balance the company’ global needs with those of local markets, is becoming a science.

After a structured analysis, facility planners

selected Goa in India as a new manufacturing

location (right). A ready-made concept for a

standard electronics facility was then adapted

to regional conditions.

Sweet Spot Science


closer look at factors that determine cus-tomers’ purchasing decisions, as well as mar-ket development aspects and competitors’ be-havior.” This can sometimes lead to anexpansion of manufacturing facilities in indus-trialized nations — as was the case whenSiemens invested more than $350 million inthe production of state-of-the-art gas turbinesat a plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2011.The turbines are high-end components whoseproduction requires skilled workers, precisiontechnologies, and intensive research. “All ofthese requirements make the U.S. a very at-tractive location for us to manufacture suchproducts competitively, because access to in-novators is much more important here thancheap labor,” says Eric Spiegel, CEO of SiemensCorporation in the U.S.

Success Factors. In order to identify the bestlocations for future manufacturing facilities,Siemens focuses on several key success fac-tors. “The main factors are profitability, speed,delivery flexibility, process quality, and innova-tive capability,” says Kaske. Each of these fac-tors must be weighted differently because

their importance varies depending on the cus-tomer, sales region, and product line in ques-tion. “The next step involves determining howwell the existing production network fits inwith these factors, as well as analyzing factorssuch as dependence on development and theexisting supplier network,” says Kaske. In thesubsequent design phase, specialists developvarious network scenarios and examine theirtotal cost impact. “By the time the process isover, we have several scenarios and can thendecide which ones we want to implement,” headds.

This is no one-time process. “It’s actuallymeant to become part of a continual footprintmanagement system — in other words, a reg-ularly scheduled monitoring procedure that re-veals areas where we can make improvementsas we go through the annual strategic plan-ning process.” Although this method takes upmore time and resources than a reactive ap-proach, Kaske is convinced that the benefitsoutweigh any drawbacks: “With this approach,we can not only make the entire network moreflexible and effective but also take long-termtrends into account in the early planning

Companies often used to be very casualabout deciding where to build their facto-

ries,” says Jörg-Henning Kaske, who is respon-sible for Manufacturing Standards & Guidanceat Siemens Corporate Technology (CT). “Youcould even go so far as to say that productionlocation decisions were often made on the ba-sis of anticipated wage cost savings — butthat’s simply not enough any more.” Thesedays, global production networks and the dis-tribution of manufacturing centers need to becarefully planned and closely aligned with cor-porate strategy and market and customer re-quirements. “That’s why we developed a newapproach for a global manufacturing footprintdesign that systematically examines the exist-ing network and is geared to our customers’ re-quirements,” says Kaske

A key focus here is to identify the weakpoints in conventional network planning. “Upuntil recently, networks were usually adjustedselectively in response to substantial cost-re-duction pressures,” Kaske explains. “In suchcases, a location in Europe would be closedand a new one built in Asia, for example. Thenew technique, on the other hand, takes a

The Next Economy | Facility Planning


planning concept made us faster and also al-lowed us to precisely predict costs and remainwithin budget,” says Schumann.

However, he is also aware of the drawbacksassociated with generic factory types. “Al-though our concept does harbor the risk thatwe might overlook certain unusual solutions,the benefits of rapid planning and precise costforecasts generally outweigh that risk.”

The new facility in Goa will play a key role inthe Energy Automation production network.For one thing, the devices manufactured therewill be exported to emerging markets, wherethey will support a number of countries as theyseek to establish smart grid infrastructures(see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2011, p.22).“If you want to integrate renewable energyinto a national grid in a meaningful way, youneed an intelligent network and computer-controlled protection equipment to handle theoutput fluctuations this type of energy is sus-ceptible to,” says Schumann.

And there is another reason why Goa is soimportant: A development department in thefacility will be used to create customized“SMART” products for the Asian market, where-

whose transmission capacity will be more thandouble that of the old 800-kV network.

Long-term plans call for Goa to expand intoa global production center for emerging mar-kets. “The main plant in Berlin will still managenetwork coordination between manufacturinglocations in the UK and China,” says Schu-mann. “For example, Berlin will ensure that thesame machinery is used at all facilities and thatproduct data remains consistent at all facto-ries.” This will make it possible to quickly com-pensate for a production shutdown at one lo-cation by having a second facility pick up theslack. Even so, development activities in Goawill give the plant there extensive freedomwhen it comes to manufacturing specific prod-uct series for emerging markets.

Kaske believes Siemens will be in a strongposition once the new approaches have beenrefined and applied. “Strategically planned dis-tribution of manufacturing facilities, rapid andeconomical on-site implementation on the ba-sis of sample factory types, and global produc-tion with uniform standards —” he says, “thesewill be the essential elements of the networkof the future.” Nils Ehrenberg

another group worked largely independentlyon the layout — in other words, the design ofthe plant’s interior. This sometimes causedproblems when the two sides came togetherto coordinate activities.”

Siemens operates over 320 factories world-wide, which means it has a wealth of experi-ence in planning and construction. “Despite allour know-how, we still had to repeatedly rein-vent the wheel — and there was always thedanger that we’d make the same mistakes allover again,” says Schumann.

Siemens’ new planning concept has elimi-nated this threat. The company’s planning ex-perts intend to utilize five basic sample factorytypes in the future, including facilities for windenergy equipment manufacturing and elec-tronics production, for example.

“In Goa, we took an existing standard elec-tronics plant design off the shelf, so to speak,and adapted it to regional conditions and re-quirements,” says Schumann. Among otherthings, this meant taking into consideration lo-cal building materials and technologies andadapting building systems to suit local environ-mental conditions.

stages. This, in turn, reduces the risk of havingto implement costly restructuring measures.”

The design of a company’s footprint is thefirst step in the creation of an optimized pro-duction network. “But we also need to improveour implementation, which is why we’ve re-structured our on-site facility planningprocess,” Kaske explains.

The new concept was first applied in thecity of Goa on the west coast of India, whereSiemens Energy Automation built a new plantfor manufacturing power-grid circuit breakersthat automatically shut down network seg-ments in order to prevent damage to the gridor transformers. Sebastian Schumann was re-sponsible for putting the concept into practicein Goa. “Up until now, conventional facilityplanning involved two processes that ran inparallel,” says Schumann. “Siemens Real Estatehandled the planning of the building, while

“The entire process was managed by a sin-gle project team — a feature that made coordi-nation between exterior building and interiorsystems planning more efficient and enabledquicker decision making,” says Schumann. Goawas chosen after an extensive analysis of thelocation. An important aspect here was thefact that Siemens’ Healthcare Sector alreadyoperates a facility for manufacturing X-ray ma-chines in Goa. As a consequence, it was possi-ble for the new factory to utilize the existinginfrastructure. In addition, it just so happenedthat Siemens already owned undevelopedproperty right next to the Healthcare plant,which greatly accelerated the planning andconstruction process.

Quick Construction. The facility in Goa wascompleted in January 2012 — just one year af-ter its groundbreaking ceremony. “The new

by smart stands for “simple,” “maintenancefriendly,” “affordable,” “reliable,” and “timely tomarket”— and thus perfect for local and re-gional requirements.

“By manufacturing locally, our plant in Goanot only offsets exchange rate fluctuations butalso cuts costs. Perhaps, more importantly, weensure that our products are adapted flexiblyto meet the different regional requirements ofour customers,” says Schumann. Just whatkind of innovative capability can be realizedwhen a company operates its own develop-ment department in India is best illustrated bythe 1,200-kilovolt (kV) circuit breakers devel-oped by the Siemens Power Transmission Divi-sion at its facility in Aurangabad.

These automated protective switches areunique — no other comparable product canoperate at such high voltages. The unit willhelp India build a 1,200-kV electricity grid


Urban infrastructures — whether for traffic and transport, energy, or buildings — are generally interlinked in many ways. As a result, even minor changes can have significant consequences. A software platform from Siemens makes it easier to manage the complexities of urban planning.

City in a Digital NutshellThe Next Economy | Urban Planning


The screen shows a satellite picture of theU.S. Dr. Bernd Wachmann, head of the “Sus-

tainable Cities” project at Siemens CorporateTechnology (CT), zooms in on a meadow justoutside Princeton, New Jersey. With a few clicks,he inserts two office buildings into the image.He plots the ground plan, adds a parking lot andaccess roads — and the complex has takenshape in the virtual realm. As Wachmann doesall this, a bar under the images he generates de-livers data, such as the buildings’ energy con-sumption at different times of the day and year,how photovoltaic systems could improve theirenergy balance, how many people could work inthe buildings, how their activity would impacttraffic flows and the power grid, the amount ofwaste and air pollution they would produce, andwhat the expected operating costs would be.“Those are just a few of the parameters we simu-late,” Wachmann explains. “The list can be ex-panded to include things like pedestrian-friendli-ness, the effects of electric vehicles on a project’senergy balance, and even quality of life. All ofthese aspects can be quantified and thereforemodeled.”

The software platform Wachmann uses forthis is part of the City Life Management (CLM)project developed by CT scientists. The CLM plat-form comes from Princeton and Munich, citydata is evaluated in Berlin andVienna, and Munich is responsi-ble for infrastructure expertise.The project develops and offerssolutions for viewing cities holis-tically, simulating the long-termimpact of changes, and formu-lating appropriate responses.CLM offers urban planners a simple way to seethe potential consequences of their decisions. Italso allows the easy development of alternative“what if…” scenarios such as changing a two-way street into a one-way street, making a build-ing taller, or using photovoltaic facilities to im-prove a neighborhood’s energy balance. Thisopens up new possibilities for addressing com-plex urban planning issues in a simple and intu-itive manner.

The interrelationships between a city’s eco-nomic, environmental, and social goals are oftenextremely complex. For example, which is bet-ter: promoting the use of electric vehicles or ex-panding the public transport network? If youchoose the former option, you won’t reduce traf-fic congestion but you will lower carbon dioxideemissions — but even that is only true if thepower grid supplying the electric vehicles deliv-ers energy from renewable sources. This, in turn,requires a high-performance grid, which in somecases first has to be built and must include bat-tery-charging stations. If, on the other hand, youchoose the public transport option, you have tobe sure there are enough incentives for people

to use it. All of this is too complex for any oneperson — or even many city governments — toevaluate. But it is no problem for the CLM plat-form. “Although our models don’t offer exactpredictions,” says Wachmann. “they are 80 per-cent accurate. This enables them to provide asolid foundation for decision-making for a rangeof organizations, such as municipal agencies,politicians, citizens’ initiatives, and local resi-dents.”

There are no quick fixes for entities as com-plex as cities, and areas of friction are sure toarise. As soon as plans for a new industrial parkor a new urban district are announced, govern-ment agencies and citizens begin addressing thepotential impact. After initial plans are drawn up,they pass through many — building depart-ments, utility companies, economic and environ-mental management offices, architectural bu-reaus, and energy suppliers. The plans are alsousually made available for public viewing at gov-ernment agencies. An online platform such asCLM can save project planners a lot of trouble —particularly if a project is contentious. Undersuch circumstances, appropriate citizen partici-pation plays a key role (p. 50).

Digitally Modeling Cities. CLM was modeledon industrial solutions for product lifecycle

management (PLM), which centrally managesall data on product development, production,warehousing, and sales. This approach notonly increases transparency but also makes theentire value creation process much more effi-cient. Use of this innovative technology has ledto extensive cost savings, shorter developmentand production times, and greater productivityin the automotive industry (Pictures of the Fu-ture, Fall 2011, p. 94). However, until recently,it had not been used very much in urban plan-ning applications. Still, Thomas Gruenewald,Project Manager for the CLM Platform atSiemens CT in Princeton, believes that a skill-fully programmed platform for planning majorinfrastructure projects could result in similarsuccesses and would also make it possible topromote sustainability in cities.

At the moment, CT experts are focusing onthe planning phase for urban infrastructure, anarea where there’s plenty of room for improve-ment. According to Dr. George Lo, Senior Prin-cipal at CT in Princeton, 75 percent of the deci-sions that determine the lifecycle costs of abuilding are made before detailed plans be-

come available. Moreover, a study conductedby the University of Texas in Austin found that57 percent of the time invested in most con-struction projects is wasted because initialdrafts often need to be altered. In other words,those who wish to design sustainable urbanconstruction projects that meet budget andschedule targets should make their decisionsduring the drafting phase.

The development of the CLM Platform washelped by the fact that the company has manyyears of experience in planning, building, andoperating water, wastewater, and energy supply systems, as well as transportation infra-structures. “We can deal with such great com-plexity because we know how to mathemati-cally model the physical behavior of thesesystems,” says modeling expert Tim Schenkfrom Siemens CT in Munich. In addition,Schenk and others are examining data now be-ing made available by more and more citiesabout their demographic structures and devel-opment, energy consumption, and transportrequirements. The results can then be com-bined with CLM to create realistic models that

A new software platform can helpcities predict the consequences of complex planning proposals.

Siemens researchers have developed a

software platform that allows them to simulate

construction projects and their impact (left) on traffic

and transportation systems, city power grids, and

quality of life.


Air traffic is booming all over the world, andpassenger miles are growing by five to six

percent every year. In New Delhi, the third ter-minal of Indira Gandhi Airport was opened in2010. In Frankfurt, Germany’s biggest trans-portation hub, a fourth runway opened in2011. And in the U.S., investment in “NextGen”advanced airport infrastructures and runwaysis continuing at a steady clip. To take just oneexample, the international airport in Los Ange-les, which is the sixth-largest in the world andserves 60 million passengers annually, is beingsignificantly expanded. The mobility of peopleand goods is also increasing on roads, rails,and ocean routes. The International TransportForum estimates that global passenger trafficin all categories of transport will triple or evenquadruple in size between 2000 and 2050 andthat the transport of goods will grow by a fac-tor of 2.5 to 3.5 during the same period.

This tremendous increase in traffic can bemost clearly felt in large cities, which are therecipients as well as the victims of this devel-

To function optimally, tomorrow’s traffic hubs will

need to interconnect the schedules of everything

from planes and ships to vehicle navigation systems

and public transit. Traffic control centers like

Berlin’s (right) receive data from many sources.

give participants a look into realistic future sce-narios.

All of this amounts to a paradigm shift, asplanners can now see almost in real time howtheir decisions in one area — for instance, theheight of a building — can impact things suchas local traffic or the energy balance in aneighborhood.

The CLM working group is now negotiatingwith representatives from two major projectsin China and central Europe that plan to utilizethis technology for the first time.

Simulating Quality of Life. “But that’s just thebeginning,” says Wachmann. “At the moment,we’re also working on using key performanceindicators (KPIs) such as energy consumption,traffic and transport volume, and carbon diox-ide generation to derive socioeconomic indica-tors as well.” The socioeconomic indicatorsWachmann is referring to enable an assess-ment of quality of life, economic development,and more. To this end, Siemens researchers aredeveloping an estimation model based on ex-pert opinions and statistical studies. Quality oflife assessments depend heavily on factorssuch as wages, public safety, and living condi-

tions, but cultural conditions are also takeninto account.

Local factors such as building ordinancesand energy efficiency stipulations will also bemore precisely incorporated into the simula-tions, as will factors that extend beyond localboundaries. These might include global cli-mate trends, for example, since future energyconsumption in buildings will of course also beimpacted by climate change. Demographic de-velopments will be considered as well. Afterall, if a neighborhood ages, this will increasethe need for things like sidewalks with wheel-chair-friendly ramps and disabled-only parking.“As long as the factors remain quantifiable,we’ll be able to model them,” says Wachmann.

The potential offered by CLM doesn’t endwith virtual planning. Not only can it be usedto conceive new neighborhoods and redesigncities for the decades to come, but it can alsohelp to manage buildings and neighborhoodsafter they’re completed. A few mouse clickswill then be all it takes for planners and citizengroups to determine, for instance, how aneighborhood’s demand for electric vehicleparking and charging will change if a streetcarline is added. Hubertus Breuer

Urban Genome Project Could Spawn New Picture of Cities

In order to conduct their Green City Index series of environmental studies, Siemens and the Economist Intelli-

gence Unit (see p.7 and www.siemens.com/greencityindex) had to analyze a huge amount of heterogeneous

data and a large number of surveys. Moreover, since then more and more information has been posted at

websites operated by cities such as Vienna, London, and Berlin, with the data covering everything from ener-

gy and the economy to art and culture. There’s so much data out there, in fact, that sustainability expert

Jonathan Fink from Arizona State University believes the time has come to decode the “urban genome.” That’s

easier said than done, though, as freely available data on a city’s socioeconomic and environmental develop-

ment continues to be organized on the basis of sectors such as transport, healthcare, and demographics.

What’s more, the information often displays great differences in terms of its quality, quantity, granularity, and

thoroughness. Siemens experts are now examining ways to collect, integrate, and interpret such data more

rapidly as part of the company’s “Sustainable Cities” lighthouse project at Corporate Technology (CT). Available

at the moment are simple, and in many cases open, programs based on data released by cities. These pro-

grams allow users to call up the current traffic situation or find out where they can drop off old clothing or

glass recyclables. More important than that, however, is the ability to quickly present a clear overview of life in

a city — whether in terms of its energy balance or in relation to its demographic or social developments. “The

challenge is to develop a coherent and complete picture of a city from diverse data sources and various de-

grees of temporal and spatial resolution,” says Dr. Axel Polleres, a computer scientist at CT in Vienna, Austria.

“This effort will eventually be supported by binding reporting standards as cities become increasingly net-

worked with one another.” A useful tool now being developed by Dr. Stefan Kluckner at CT in Graz, Austria

employs state-of-the-art image processing technology to convert conventional digital 2D images into 3D mod-

els of entire urban districts. The system records relevant scenes from overlapping viewing angles and different

points in time and then uses automated methods to combine them into a single 3D depiction. The goal here is

to use such spatially and temporally arranged data sets to help future automated analysis programs display

the current conditions in a city and subsequently use the depictions as a basis for city models and simulations.

This would make it possible, for example, to create a dynamic and continually updated Green City Index.


and the “Future of Hubs” idea competition con-ducted by the division. “Our employees sub-mitted 140 ideas,” reports the initiator of theproject, Huschke Diekmann. The new conceptswere put on an intranet platform so that col-leagues could evaluate and comment onthem. The ideas that were judged to be thebest all had one thing in common: They agreedthat the networking of individual modes oftransport has especially great potential.

The winning project was called “An Inter-modal Passenger Information Platform.” Itcalled for the linkage of all the informationabout all modes of transport within a city in asingle software solution. All the schedules ofevery form of local public transport, as well asthe traffic situation on streets, would be madeavailable. This would make it possible to offeran app that could be used not only to plan aroute from house to house but also to continu-ally check all the alternative routes in real timeand get recommendations about the best one.Siemens presented a prototype of this system

in late 2011 at the sixth National IT Summit inMunich. The demonstration presented an “in-termodally” traveling businessman who navi-gates around a traffic jam using a smart phoneand the Internet. In the process, he switchesfrom his car to a train and then to an e-scooterand finally reaches his destination on foot.

The contest’s second prize was awarded toan idea for “intermodal goods transport.” Onaverage, it takes up to 12 hours to unload afreight train loaded with containers. The carsmust first be decoupled from their electric lo-comotive and then pushed by a diesel-pow-ered locomotive to a track without an over-head cable. A portal crane then loads theindividual containers onto trucks. According toinventors from Siemens, the transshipmentprocess could be performed under the over-head cable using a much simpler and lighterunloading bridge, and the containers could bemoved around via a parallel track similar to aconveyor belt. An entire freight train could beunloaded in less than two hours and it could

opment. Because they are responsible forabout 80 percent of the world’s economic out-put, cities are the hubs of the global mobilitynetwork for people and goods. Just as with theexchange of data on the Internet, hubs ornodes are crucial to maintaining the stability ofthe network as a whole. Cities have realizedthis fact. In a survey commissioned by Siemensseveral years ago, more than 500 mayors andurban experts all over the world defined trafficinfrastructures as being by far the most impor-tant factor if their respective cities were to re-main attractive as business locations.

Ideas for Future Hubs. Does this mean thatthe road and rail networks have to be continu-ally expanded? The traffic experts who partici-pated in the survey have other priorities.Above all, they want to make better use of theexisting infrastructure — a step that is less ex-pensive and more environmentally friendly.This approach is also the focus of future sce-narios conceived by Siemens’ Mobility Division

Major cities account for most of the world’s economic output. But they are dependent on seamless information flows in order to ensure the smooth exchange of goods within transport systems. Automation technology from Siemens makes traffic infrastructures more efficient. In the future, such systems will learn from experience and evolve into holistic traffic optimization systems.

How IT Can Boost CapacityThe Next Economy | Traffic Systems

56 Reprinted (wit updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2012

then continue its journey. Using similar tech-nology, containers in seaports could also beunloaded from ships directly onto railroad cars.Smart containers could play a key role in thegoods transportation of the future by automat-ically providing information about their desti-nations and delivery dates to a logistics IT system.

One Control Center for All. In Germany, a re-search project known as the Total Airport Man-agement Suite (TAMS), which is funded by theFederal Ministry of Economics and Technology,is designed to exploit the full potential of inter-model systems. Siemens, the project’s leader,has worked closely with the German Aero-space Center, Stuttgart Airport, and other in-dustrial partners on TAMS, which was complet-ed in early 2012.

The basic idea behind TAMS is simple: Linkeverything. Thus, at an airport, key factors,such as capacity and number of take-offs andlandings should be coordinated with flightplans and dozens of related systems, such asthe timing of refueling and luggage loading

activities, the number of people checking pass-ports, the capacity of gate areas where planesdock, and the destinations of catering trucks.Today, these tasks, as well as others, are gener-ally performed by independent serviceproviders. Each of these providers dispatchesits employees according to a coordinated plan,but from its own control point. Like clockwork,each gear wheel connects with another one —until a major disturbance, such as a snowstorm, occurs. To date, the IT systems of serv-ice providers have been linked at best by ashared database. As a result, alternative planshave to be laboriously coordinated by theheads of operations.

Things are very different in a TAMS automa-tion environment. Here, all service providersare linked in a single control center that coordi-nates all operations throughout the airport.The IT systems of the individual companies are

linked in such a way that their employees aresupported by integrated assistance functionswhen they need to make decisions.

“In airports that are operating close to ca-pacity, TAMS can increase the number of air-plane movements per hour by about ten per-cent,” says Dr. Christoph Meier, who isresponsible for airport IT in Siemens’ Mobilityand Logistics division. This estimate is basedon simulations carried out at the German Aero-space Center (DLR) in Braun-schweig. TAMS also has apositive influence on CO2

emissions. That’s becausethe integration of air trafficcontrol means that every air-plane rolls to its startingpoint only if it can take off ashort time afterward. Lines of airplanes wait-ing to take off can thus be almost completelyeliminated — along with associated fuel use.Because decisions taken by air traffic control,such as changes in the direction of take-off, nolonger come as a surprise to other operators atan airport, punctuality simultaneously increas-

es by up to 20 percent. This results in clear eco-nomic advantages for airlines. The Europeanair safety authority, Eurocontrol, estimates thatthe costs that are caused by all flight delays inEurope total as much as €1 billion annually.

The results of the TAMS research projecthave been so encouraging that Siemens in-tends to offer TAMS as a product as early as2012. Airports will then be able to buy thecomplete software architecture, as well as acontrol center, from Siemens.

From the passenger’s perspective, it’s cru-cial not only to land on time but also to reachhis / her ultimate destination quickly. However,in many cases, arriving passengers discoverthat the local infrastructure has failed to keeppace with economic growth. This can becomeparticularly clear if they’re taking a taxi. Inmany cities, the average speed of a taxi duringrush hour is less than 20 kilometers per hour.

Diekmann, the technology strategist, be-lieves there’s no such thing as a sensible stan-dard solution. “Every city is different,” he says.To discover not only the quickest route, but theone with the least environmental impact,Dozens of parameters must be taken into ac-count, including emission figures for differentmodes of transport and lengths of traffic jams.Solutions depend on the accuracy of data. Thedata must then be registered and processed by

traffic guidance systems such as the onesSiemens has installed in over 1,000 cities.

Siemens commissioned one of the mostmodern traffic guidance centers in Berlin in2005. The flow of traffic throughout the city ismonitored with the help of video cameras andalmost 2,000 sensors, most of which are in-

duction loops embedded in asphalt. More than1,700 traffic lights and 300 overhead signgantries can be controlled fully automaticallyfrom the city’s control center based on trafficflow and time of day. But even such high-techinstallations can be further improved throughultramodern control technology.

Intuitive Decision-Making. A far more ad-vanced solution is a cognitive software systemdeveloped by Dr. Georg von Wichert, an au-tomation expert at Siemens Corporate Technol-ogy. von Wichert loaded the system with fourweeks’ worth of traffic data from Berlin. “In thiscase, ‘cognitive’ means that the system itselfcreates a model of the city’s traffic processesand then makes decisions,” he explains. In oth-er words, the system does not base its assess-ment of the traffic situation on individual sen-sor measurements and on what’s happening

Siemens researchers are developing an app that monitors all of a city’s transportation modes in real time and guides travelers to their destinations.

Every city has different sources of traffic congestion and thereforeneeds customized solutions.


on individual streets. Instead, it evaluates sen-sor data within the overall urban context and“understands” the situation as a whole. This is aform of intelligence that people use intuitively,that is the reason why service personnel like toswitch back and forth between programs at thecontrol center to get an overview.

The advantage of a cognitive system is thatit can observe complex data in parallel andthus recognize deviations from normal conges-tion patterns faster than a human can. Howev-er, it must be trained. After von Wichert’s sys-tem had completed its learning phase, itbecame clear that the city’s traffic flows andregularly-occurring congestion could be accu-rately predicted. Special cases, such as jams re-sulting from accidents or short-term construc-tion sites, were also reliably detected. Usingthis data, it would be possible to create an as-sistance system as an initial step, and thus tohelp control center personnel choose the bestcontrol program for the city’s traffic lights.

An additional advantage of the cognitivesystem lies the fact that it’s capable of learn-ing. “In the next step, we could generate tinyvariations in the system’s parameters,” saysvon Wichert. “This would allow us to test thereaction of the system as a whole and thus op-timize the control programs in many smallsteps without interfering with traffic flow.”

More extensive tests would be able to showto what extent the traffic in a major city couldflow more smoothly with the help of cognitivesystems. But von Wichert is convinced that incomplex situations, his learning model-basedcontrol system will be superior to human oper-ators in a control center.

Diekmann also believes that automatic con-trol systems will do far more than just manageroad traffic. He predicts that in comingdecades control centers for road traffic, localpublic transportation systems, and even thedispatch centers of courier and freight serviceswill all be interconnected. “When that hap-pens, cities will have a nervous system thatmakes it possible to comprehensively optimizetraffic over broad areas,” he predicts.

If cognitive intelligence is one day used tocoordinate all modes of transport and all trans-port hubs, the dream of the super mobility appmight become a reality. This is how it wouldwork: The traveler enters any destination inthe world into the app, and the app suggests,for example, three different travel routes thatcan include any mode of transport, but in allcases are oriented toward optimized traveltimes, costs and CO2 emissions. Such sugges-tions would be based not on theoretical sched-ules, but on current forecasts of traffic condi-tions. If conditions change in the course of atrip, route suggestions would be adjusted inreal time. Johannes Winterhagen

The Next Economy

In BriefThe global economy is being transformed and

making new success stories possible. In many in-

dustrial sectors, for example, future growth will

take place predominantly in emerging markets.

Siemens‘ Second Wave Emerging Countries con-

cept recognizes the increasing importance of

countries such as Colombia, Mexico, and Turkey,

where new assembly plants are being built and

new products are being developed according to

the needs of local markets. In the future, industri-

alized nations will have to be even more innova-

tive. (pp. 36, 47)

Siemens Financial Services knows how invest-

ments can be put to profitable use – even in a cri-

sis. SFS safely guides large projects through

volatile financial markets all over the world.

(p. 39)

Resources could become scarce. Due to the

growing demand for fossil fuels, oil and natural

gas firms are increasingly moving into the deep

sea. Deposits can be exploited more efficiently

and safely if facilities are located on the seabed

instead of on drilling platforms. Here, Siemens

plans to provide power supply systems and ex-

traction technology. (p. 44)

From independent power supplies and water

management to fire safety and air purity controls,

hospitals require absolutely dependable systems.

Thanks to building automation systems from

Siemens, Dell Children’s Medical Center of central

Texas is not only exceptionally efficient, but has

also become the world’s first LEED Platinum Hos-

pital. (p. 49)

International companies not only serve global

sales markets but also manufacture their prod-

ucts in many countries. At Siemens, identifying

the optimal locations to place factories and thus

balance the company’s global needs with those

of local markets is becoming a science. (p. 50)

Urban infrastructures — whether for traffic a

nd transport, energy, or buildings — are gener-

ally interlinked in many ways. As a result, even

minor changes can have significant conse-

quences. A software platform from Siemens

makes it easier to manage the complexities of

urban planning. (p. 52)

PEOPLE:

Second Wave Emerging Countries:

Marianne Kiener, Corporate Development Strategy

[email protected]

Financing Infrastructure Projects:

Hans-Joachim Schulz, Siemens Financial Services

[email protected]

Subsea technologies:

Bjoern Einar Brath, Energy

[email protected]

Latin America:

Tamyres Machado, Technical Director in Jundiaí

[email protected]

Wilson Ruiz, Distribution Diesel Motors Columbia

[email protected]

Global Production Networks:

Jörg-Henning Kaske, Siemens Supply Chain

[email protected]

Digital City Planning:

Dr. Bernd Wachmann, Corporate Technology

[email protected]

Tim Schenk, Corporate Technology

[email protected]

Traffic Systems:

Huschke Diekmann, Infrastructure and Cities

[email protected]

Dr. Georg v. Wichert, Corporate Technology

[email protected]

LINKS:

Dell Children Medical Center / LEED:

www.dellchildrens.net/about_us/about_our_

green_building/

PricewaterhouseCoopers:

www.pwc.com

Siemens Financial Services:

www.siemens.com/sfs


Highlights63 About a Global Shortage As populations in many countries continue to grow, demand for water is increasing. In fact, some 780 million people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water. Membrane filtration technology from Siemens can change this picture by making affordable potable water available virtually anywhere it's needed.

66 On the Shores of Lake Victoria Africa’s largest lake is often referred to as “the sick giant." But the lake’s poor health is not the only problem affecting the communities living around it. So-called "Water Energy Hubs" provide communities with access to renewable energy, potable water, and communication services.

71 No One Left Behind Medical care is an essential part of the life of every individual — in rural areas as well as in cities. That's why not only pragmatic and cost-efficient solutions are needed in emerging economies, but also high-end devices, especially when it comes to medical centers in major cities. Pages 71, 73, 76

78 Let’s Make a Deal! Many major projects are not only complex and opaque, but involve decisions that profoundly affect communities. To an ever-increasing extent, the public expects to be actively engaged in such projects — as demonstrated by examples from Germany, Switzerland and Brazil.

2035The age of electricity has begun in a small

village in central Africa that was previously

cut off from the outside world. Wind turbines

and a biogas power plant now supply renew-

able energy. Villagers use the electricity to

operate household appliances, charging

stations for electric vehicles, and streetlights.

The village’s medical center is equipped with

a solar-powered cooling and air-conditioning

system.

The road to the new era of electricity isbumpy and overgrown by high grass. The

bush rises up on both sides of the dirt road likea solid multicolored wall. Now and then aclearing appears, giving us a view of a giraffeor two as we almost soundlessly roll past. For


Sharing a Brighter Future | Scenario 2035

Central Africa in 2035. In the middle of the bush stands a remotevillage that used to be dependent on fire wood for power. Butnow the government has equipped it with renewable technolo-gies and catapulted it into a new era. A visiting journalist dis -covers how electricity has changed the inhabitants’ lives.

Energy Comes Home

Can you hear the heartbeat of an unbornchild in a village that has no electricity?

Can a family light a room even if the cost ofdiesel fuel for a lamp becomes unaffordable?Or filter its water to ensure that it is free of ar-senic? Is it possible to develop cameras so so-phisticated and inexpensive that even smallcompanies in developing countries can affordto automate quality control? Or to developmedical diagnostic equipment that almost anyhospital can afford? Absolutely.

These, and dozens of other solutions thatbroadly fit Siemens’ “simple, maintenance-friendly, affordable, reliable, and timely-to-market” (SMART) definition, are now in thecompany’s innovation pipeline. They rangefrom an image processing module for an X-raysystem that is 75 percent cheaper than itspredecessor (see Pictures of the Future, Spring2009, p.87) to solar-powered “Water EnergyHub” for charging lanterns and cell phones in


some time now, the bush taxis here in centralAfrica have been electric. If our battery shouldgive out in rough terrain, a small combustionengine can extend our vehicle’s range. At thewheel is district physician Dr. Salim Taylor, whois our tour guide for today. He has a rather un-healthy lifestyle for a doctor — there’s always acigar in the corner of his mouth, and his driv-ing style is almost as wild as the surroundinglandscape. But hardly anyone else on this sideof the equator is as well informed about thiscountry’s development and inhabitants as heis. Taylor is on the way to his weekly outpatientclinic in a remote village, where he plans toview the initial results of a development pro-gram that has literally electrified the village.

“Rats!” curses Taylor as the right front wheelsuddenly disappears into a very deep pothole.“This is the tenth aardvark hole since we leftthe gravel road.” He pulls out a fresh cigar andlights it with a snap of his lighter. “This ‘road’doesn’t deserve its name, but the village upahead has really changed unbelievably,” hesays. Taylor knows this better than anyoneelse, because he was there last year whentechnicians catapulted the village from itsStone Age past into the new age of electricity.He advised the government officials in chargeof the project and provided support for the vil-lagers.

Previously, the village had in effect been cutoff from the outside world, without electricityor access to communication networks — ananachronism that has become rare today, evenin Africa. Through its new program for sustain-able development in remote regions, the gov-ernment is trying to remove the “emptyspaces” from the country’s map. “It’s a questionof evolution rather than revolution,” says Tay-lor. “We’re not trying to abolish the village’s so-cial structures and traditions; instead, we aimto improve people’s living conditions.”

He points to the vegetation on both sides ofthe road. “Have you noticed? Even thoughwe’ve already almost reached the village, theovergrowth is still as thick as ever. A few yearsago the area around the village was complete-ly deforested — but today the people nolonger need to gather firewood.” Taylor puffsout a cloud of cigar smoke and bumps throughyet another pothole. The bush slowly thins out,revealing a view of a vast plain. We descendfrom a small hill, at whose foot lies the village.

At first glance the collection of round hutslooks more traditional than progressive. How-ever, in the savanna behind the village standthree wind turbines turning lazily in the lightbreeze. And in the middle of the village is aneye-catching modern building with rooftop so-lar cells flashing in the sun. What’s more, acloser look reveals rows of metal poles thatsupport LED streetlights.

“We’ve arrived,” says Taylor with a smile,then climbs out of the vehicle with a grunt ofrelief. “That’s the medical center,” he says,pointing to the building with the solar cells. “Ithas a cooling and air conditioning system thatis solar-powered and uses an absorption refrig-erator. The system keeps the building refresh-ingly cool. But today we’re making housecalls.” He pulls a tablet PC out of his pocket andgreets Abdul, the village mayor. “Abdul issomething like a paramedic. He keeps regularrecords of how my patients in the village aredoing and sends me the data by radio. Thedata might consist of photographs of the find-ings or the results of blood tests he carries outwith automatic test devices no larger than acell phone. So I’m always well-informed aboutmy patients’ current state of health.”

On the way to the first patient we pass acylindrical container flanked by a couple ofelectric charging stations. “That’s our biogaspower plant,” says Abdul proudly, tapping theside of the tank. “We feed it with plant clip-pings and manure. The bacteria in the tank useit to produce methane, which is then automat-ically turned into electricity. Together with thewind turbines, this power plant makes us ener-gy self-sufficient.” He points to the chargingstations and says, “Don’t forget to unplug yourvehicle when you’ve finished, Salim!”

As we approach the patient’s round grass-roofed hut, we can hear soft music. The potsimmering on the stove gives off a spicy aro-ma, and an LED lamp hangs from the ceiling.“Aardvark stew,” says Taylor with satisfaction ashe takes a look at his tablet PC. “My young pa-tient is obviously doing better.” He points to aboy lying on a bed, who looks to be abouttwelve years old. “Does he have malaria?” I ask.“We’ve hardly seen any cases of malaria sincethe last round of vaccinations,” Taylor answers.“Snake bites aren’t so critical any more either.Thanks to the stable power supply, we nowhave refrigeration at the medical center. Thisallows us to stock enough serum and othermedications to take care of many conditions.Now that the village has entered the age ofelectricity, the villagers are no longer as vulner-able as they were before. Previously, if an acci-dent happened there was no way to get help.Today, people can call for help on a cell phoneor get to the medical center on an electric bike.This boy was such a case. He was riding hisbike without a helmet and had a crash thatgave him a concussion.”

The doctor shines a flashlight into the boy’seyes. “Was he going too fast?” I ask. “He hit anaardvark hole,” Taylor grins and nods to thewoman at the stove, who is holding out a ladleof stew for him to sample. “By the way, thecause of the accident didn’t survive the crash.”

Florian Martini


Sharing a Brighter Future | Trends

Siemens is testing new technologies that will help developing economies and their poorest citizensbootstrap themselves into a more productive future. On tap are generators that will turn coconut shellsinto electricity, self-powered sewage treatment plants that will turn effluent into fresh water, and a vision of tomorrow that will turn reliable and affordable products into stepping stones to a better life.

In India, battery-powered lamps provide light for less

than the cost of kerosene, and a power plant small enough

to fit on the back of a truck produces enough electricity

from coconut shells to power an entire village.

Tapping New Sources of Hope

shows that between now and 2025, the annu-al purchasing power of the 650 million poorestpeople in India will triple to over one trilliondollars.”

Lanterns that Change Lives. “It is a tragicsituation that in this day and age people areliving literally in darkness,” says Dr. Rajendra K.Pachauri, Chairman of the U.N. intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change and Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institutein New Delhi. “In view of this, my institute haslaunched a program called Lighting a BillionLives in which Siemens is involved through itsOsram subsidiary. Here, we are addressing theproblem of the 1.6 billion people around theworld who have no access to grid electricity.”

The program, he explains, has developed asolar lantern and solar-powered village charg-ing station where people can drop off theirlamps for charging during the day and rent

them for a few pennies per night. “Thelanterns offer enormous benefits because theyallow people to work or study after dark, thuscontributing to the economic welfare of theirvillages,” says Pachauri.

Not only is light coming to many of theworld’s off-grid villages. Power is on the way aswell. Engineers at Siemens Corporate Researchand Technology's (CT T) Renewable Energy In-novation Center in Bangalore, India are devel-oping what amounts to a portable powerplant. Already operating so efficiently that itmeets U.S. emission requirements, the plantneeds about 35 kilograms of coconut shellsper hour to generate enough electricity for atypical Indian village of 50 to 100 families.

“Our partial oxidation combustion processproduces a hydrogen and carbon monoxidegas that is fed into a reciprocating internalcombustion engine that generates 25 to 300kilowatt of electricity,” explains Peeush Kumar,

Kenya (page 66), and from software devel-oped in China that can analyze an entire city’straffic status to a turbine designed specificallyfor the combustion of gas produced by a Brazil-ian sugarcane biomass facility (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2009, p.78,88).

What’s more, by providing technologiesthat help developing economies and low-in-come people around the world to bootstrapthemselves into a more productive future,Siemens is tapping what groundbreaking au-thor C. K. Prahalad has called ‘The Fortune atthe Bottom of the Pyramid.’

“Every major company is developing strate-gies for satisfying the needs of those at thebottom of the pyramid,” says Dr. B. Bowonder,Dean of the Tata Management Training Centerin Pune, India and a world-renowned expert ontechnology and innovation management.“These people are not to be dismissed becausethey are poor. On the contrary, our research


who is responsible for energy systems develop-ment at CT T India.

“What is unique about our solution,” headds, “is that, thanks to new electrostatic pre-cipitator technology now being developed inMunich, it will require very little cleaning wa-ter. What’s more, the combustion process pro-duces carbon ash that can be converted intoactivated charcoal for local water purificationand can even become a significant source ofrevenue if sold externally.”

A Corkscrew that Purifies Waste Water. Ifthere’s one thing that is even more essentialthan light and power, it is clean, safe water.Here too, Siemens is developing solutions thatwill transform the lives of people rich and poor.In Singapore, for instance, where the companyestablished its global headquarters for watertechnology research and development in 2007and is a key player in the city state’s “WaterHub,” a center dedicated to developing afford-able water treatment solutions (see Pictures ofthe Future Fall 2008, p.39), Siemens WaterTechnologies (WT) is working with SiemensCorporate Technology to develop new materi-als that can selectively adsorb (bind) danger-ous contaminants such as arsenic.

Arsenic occurs naturally in toxic concentra-tions in wide areas of northern India, easternBangladesh and the southwestern UnitedStates. “In view of the danger of arsenic poison-ing in many parts of the world, we have devel-oped and tested an arsenic adsorbing particleas well as a filtration system that can captureit,” says Richard Woodling, PhD, who is incharge of technology development at WT’sglobal R&D center in Singapore. “The systemcan be downsized to the needs of an individualfarmer and can process 1.000 liters for less thanhalf a cent,” he says. Once captured, the arseniccan be precipitated from the filter and bound tocement, thus permanently removing it from theenvironment. The technology was tested inSingapore in early 2009 with great success.

Meanwhile, back in Bangalore, CT re-searchers are developing a sewage treatmentsystem that can already remove 95 percent oforganic substances and up to 99 percent of nu-trients such as nitrogen and phosphates fromeffluent without any outside power source.“Most sewage treatment facilities have veryhigh energy requirements because they rely onpowerful aerators to support the bacteria thatmetabolize organic matter,” explains Senior Re-search Engineer Dr. Anal Chavan. “But with ourunique system, specially-adapt-ed microorganisms produce theoxygen themselves.”

Shaped something like acorkscrew, the treatment sys-tem can be powered by theforce of effluent as it cascadesdownward, thus turning the corkscrew and ex-posing the water to its surface area, which iscolonized with bacteria. “What’s more,” addsDr. Zubin Varghese, department head forsmart innovations at Siemens Corporate Tech-nology in India, “the same technology — butwith different organisms — can be adapted totreating water contaminated with chemical orpetroleum wastes.”

Corporate Technology India is now workingwith Siemens Water Technologies to identify avillage for a pilot facility. “This is a perfect ex-ample of a SMART technology,” says Varghese.“It can be scaled up to any desired size, truckedinto a village, and can, with only minimal addi-tional treatment — possibly based on the acti-vated charcoal from our coconut gasificationsystem — turn sewage water into potable water.”

A Stethoscope that Recognizes Hearts.Light, energy, clean water — the technologicalbuilding blocks for affordably offering these in-dispensables to hundreds of millions of theworld’s poorest people are now taking shape.But there’s more. In India, where almost 85 percent of the population has no access to

medical care, the government is about to morethan double its healthcare budget to almosttwo percent ($20 billion) of GDP. And tech-nologies designed to improve basic healthcareservices are in the pipeline. For instance, witha view to ensuring a safe delivery for the 30million babies born each year in India, thirtypercent of whom — about 27,000 per day —are at risk, Siemens is developing a Fetal HeartRate Monitor (FHRM) that vastly simplifies thediagnosis — and potentially accelerates the

treatment — of problem pregnancies. “This isan exciting product because there is nothingelse like it on the market,” comments D. Raga-van, Sector Cluster Lead South Asia SiemensHealthcare, which grew by 15 percent in 2010-2011.

Something like a digital stethoscope, themonitor — now a functional prototype — isoutfitted with sophisticated electronics and al-gorithms developed by CT India that result inan inexpensive device capable of distinguish-ing the sound of the fetal heart from the soundof the mother’s heart.

Combined with a waist belt, a wirelessmodule, an acoustic sensor and an accelerom-eter-based muscle-contraction sensor that isnow under development, the device will offerthe potential of continuous monitoring in ma-ternity wards.

“As a contraction comes to an end, the fetalheart rate needs to return to normal,” explainsSenior Research Engineer Archana Kalyansun-dar, who is responsible for Siemens ruralhealthcare technologies for India. “If it fails todo so, that is a sign of trouble. And that’s whenthe device will trigger an alarm to call a doctorto the mother’s bedside.” Arthur F. Pease

Siemens researchers have developed an algae-based sewage treatment system that removes up to 99% of nutrients from effluent without any outside power source.

A new filter system can purify up to 1,000 liters of water for lessthan half a cent.


SkyHydrant provides protection

against impurities and pathogens by

producing clear, filtered water.Sharing a Brighter Future | Clean Water

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink,” wrote the poet Coleridge at the end of the 18th century — a sentiment that still describes the situation of some 780 million people who lack access todrinking water. A filtration system that uses membranes from Siemens is helping to improve things.

Mobile Solution for a Thirsty World

Although almost three-fourths of the Earthis covered with water, only 0.3 percent of

all water reserves are suitable for drinking.Worse yet, the World Health Organization esti-mates that around 1.8 million people die eachyear of diarrhea-related illnesses caused bycontaminated water.

Mercy Nyambura (below) is very familiarwith this problem. She is a student in Kilimam-bogo, a village located 60 kilometers fromKenya’s capital, Nairobi. Just a few years ago,she had no choice but to drink the contaminat-ed water of the nearby Thika river. As a result,she had to go to the hospital innumerable

times and missed school on many occasions. Itwas an intolerable situation, yet by no meansan insurmountable one. Indeed, a solution forpeople like Mercy has been developed by RhettButler from Siemens Water Technologies inSydney, Australia. Several years ago, Butler de-veloped the SkyHydrant, a small, mobile watertreatment system (see Pictures of the Future,Fall 2008, p. 36). Moved by the desire to im-prove people’s quality of life, in 2005 hefounded SkyJuice, a non-profit organization.Its goal is to form local partnerships in order tomake SkyHydrants better known in rural areasas well as in cities. Today, 900 units are in oper-

ation in 42 countries. A single SkyHydrant canaccommodate the drinking water needs of acommunity of up to 1,000 inhabitants.

Together with SkyJuice, the Global NatureFund, and PureFlow — a local partner — in2010 the Siemens Stiftung set up two safe wa-ter kiosks in Mercy’s home country. At thesesmall water filling stations, SkyHydrants trans-form contaminated water into a pure beveragethat costs only three cents per canister. “Im-pure water can drive people from villages intocities — something our project in Kenya is de-signed to prevent,” says Ulrike Wahl, ManagingDirector of the Siemens Stiftung. The Founda-


A high-speed,

electric version of

the SkyHydrant,

the AquaVendor

has a flow rate of

25,000 liters

per day.

Mali nights are fantastic,” says Piet-Willem Chevalier. “You can see count-

less stars because there’s no light pollution.”Mali, a country in West Africa, has no nationalpower grid and very few people can afford adiesel generator. That’s why Chevalier, an en-gineer for dynamic wind turbine analyses atSiemens Energy in Den Haag, wants to supplyMali with green electricity. Since 2008 he hasbeen working in his free time on the “I lovewind power” project, which trains Malians tobuild wind turbines from locally available ma-terials.

Afterwards, trainees will be able to set uptheir own companies, which will not onlymake wind power systems, but also offer re-pair service and battery charging stations.“When a solar cell breaks, you have to buy anew one — but wind power gets local peopleinvolved,” says Chevalier, who believes thattechnological and social progress go together.When asked how he got started, he replies, “I usually work on a computer, but I wanted tobuild a small wind turbine with my ownhands.” On the Internet he found instructionsfrom Scottish developer Hugh Piggott, whohas been making wind turbines from simple

tion’s goal is to turn SkyHydrant water supplystations into micro-businesses. “The drinkingwater doesn’t have to be offered for free. Pure-Flow trains water committees, which operateand service the kiosks,” says Wahl. The pro-ceeds provide employees with a little income,which ensures the kiosks remain viable andprovides the village economy with a future.Due to the success Siemens Stiftung is realiz-ing four more Aqua Stations in Kenya in 2012.

At the heart of the safe water kiosks arefour 1.5-meter-long SkyHydrants, each ofwhich weighs 16 kilograms and looks like amedium-sized organ pipe. Inside each pipe is afilter consisting of 10,000 hair-thin membranefibers with tiny pores that act like a sieve. “Riv-er water is fed into a tank, from which thehead pressure causes it to flow through themembrane filters without requiring any electri-cal energy,” explains Project Manager ChristineWeyrich from the Siemens Stiftung. “The filtersremove all of the suspended particles, bacteriaand viruses from the water. If required, theequipment can be disinfected with citric acid;chemical agents are not required.”

Two filters are installed in each kiosk, usuallya small stone building. “This protects the filtersand the purified water from the effects of sun-light and dirt,” says Weyrich. Such a “water fac-tory” with two units can produce around20,000 liters of clean drinking water per day.Four SkyHydrants can thus supply enough wa-ter for more than 2,000 residents. Villagerscome to the kiosks with their 20-liter canisterswhenever they need water, which they can ob-tain for only three cents. “The SkyHydrantseven allow us to save money,” says Mercy. “Themoney used to spend on medications can nowbe used to pay for my schooling and will en-able me to become a nurse when I grow up.”

This example from Kenya shows how close-ly social development is tied to the supply ofwater. “Low water quality negatively impactspeople’s educational opportunities, destroysthe ecosystem, and causes rural flight,” saysButler. Cities generally have water treatmentplants for potable water, but the technology isby no means simple and is therefore often be-yond the means of communities in developingcountries and emerging markets. In addition,urban infrastructures are becoming increasing-ly overloaded due to rapid population growth.

Decentralized, autonomous technologiesare therefore a good alternative here. That’swhy SkyJuice also wants to work together withpartners such as Rotary International and Ox-fam to set up SkyHydrants in cities throughoutthe world. This movement has alreadyachieved considerable success, as the “smallorgan pipe” is now used in many hospitals,schools and slums in developing countries.“SkyHydrants are already being used in majorcities in Bangladesh, Haiti, India, Cambodia,and Nepal,” says Butler. “But there’s still a lot ofwork to be done.”

Automatic Filtration. Butler lives up to hispromises, and he and his team have furtherdeveloped the SkyHydrant over the past ninemonths. The result is the “AquaVendor,” whichruns on the same principle as its sophisticatedpredecessor and also uses the same mem-brane fibers. The difference is that the systemno longer needs to be operated manually. In-stead, a small control device operates theAquaVendor, making the filtration and purifi-cation processes fully automatic.

The system is also cleaned fully automati-cally every 20 to 30 minutes by a small blowerthat injects air into the filter in order to removeany residue caught in the membranes. Thespace-saving device can produce up to 25,000liters of drinking water per day, which is morethan twice as much water as the SkyHydrantcan manage.

The only thing that’s needed for the Aqua-Vendor is a power socket — everything elseruns fully automatically and requires a minimalamount of maintenance. According to Butler,the portable water treatment plant is ideal forresidential buildings, small urban water co-op-eratives and small volume industrial users. “Itcould be installed in every hotel or multi-familyhome in India and China — just imagine thepossibilities,” says Butler. “You could transformrainwater that has been collected on rooftopsinto valuable drinking water.” And at a price of$7,000, the units would also be affordable,says Butler. The new water treatment system iscurrently being refined in Sydney before itmake its way into thirsty markets throughoutthe developing world. Hülya Dagli

Dutch engineer Piet Chevalier is working

on wind power for Mali. His 900-watt turbines

are handmade locally and almost all of the

materials come from the vicinity.


materials for decades. Between 1970 and1990 hundreds of small wind turbines wereset up in Mali to pump water, but only a fewof them are still in operation, says BrahimaBocar, who comes from the Timbuktu regionand works for Siemens in Warsaw. “They werefinanced by foreign organizations. When theprojects were over, no one cared about thepumps anymore. The local inhabitants lackedthe needed expertise to maintain them. It’snot enough to supply a product, you alsohave to train and motivate people to keep itrunning.”

In 2008 Chevalier met Bocar at a Siemenstraining course in Denmark. Bocar talkedabout daily life in Mali and Chevalier de-scribed the wind turbines he was building.They soon realized that such open-sourcewind power facilities could transform peo-ple’s lives in Mali. Even uneducated peoplecan easily build the turbines, as the blades aremade of wood that can be sawed and chis-eled into the right shape. The generator con-sists of coiled copper wire and the rotor spinson a car wheel hub. “You also need a fewmetal brackets and a pipe for the mast —that’s all,” says Chevalier.

in Africa, even the sense of time,” he says. Youhave to adjust to the local rhythm “or youwon’t even last four days.” Cultural differencesturned out to be the biggest problem, not thepeople’s craftsmanship, as Chevalier had origi-nally expected. “The people in Mali know howto use tools better than I do,” he says.

People Power. Another challenge was Mali’sstrict caste system, regulating which classes ofpeople are allowed to do what. The ten partici-pants nonetheless included two women — arare situation in Mali’s conservative Muslim soci-ety. Every morning Gerner asked the partici-pants to do exercises to strengthen their teamspirit. “It was a big step forward when the menand women touched each other’s hands,” shesays. Another obstacle was the language: Ma-lians speak various local dialects and pronounceFrench words with a strong accent. Chevalierovercame these difficulties by creating postersto explain how wind turbines are built.Chevalier and Gerner managed to buy most ofthe required materials from local merchants.Only two components had to be imported: per-manent magnets from China and polyester toinsulate the copper wires, which came fromSenegal. In workshops participants learnedhow to make wind turbines that are between12 and 20 meters tall with rotor diameters of1.2 to 4.2 meters.

A turbine with a diameter of three metershas a peak output of 900 watts and an energyyield of 150 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month,says Chevalier. “The materials and assemblycost around €350, to which you have to addthe cost of the mast, batteries, and electronicsystems, such as the voltage regulator. Al-though you can buy these components in Mali,our do-it-yourself technology allows us tomake them at 10 to 20 percent of the normalcost.” That reduces the cost of a turbine by sev-eral dozen euros.

“If a wind turbine is sold for €650, its elec-tricity costs about 20 euro cents per kWh,” saysChevalier. The electricity produced by a smalldiesel generator costs 80 euro cents per kWh.“You can therefore achieve the breakeven pointafter only a year.” Malians who are now gettingelectricity for the first time in their lives mostlyuse it for lighting or to recharge their cellphones. Some also buy a refrigerator or a TV.“We had big storms in August 2010,” reportsGerner. As a result, the mast of one of the fourcompleted turbines snapped. Another threemasts have not yet been set up because Cheva-lier’s private resources have dried up. “So farI’ve paid for everything out of my own pocketand done the work in my free time,” he says.Chevalier must therefore find new sources forfunding wind power so that Mali’s people nolonger has to live in the dark. Evelyn Runge

Culture Shock. Chevalier subsequently con-tacted Yvonne Gerner, who lives near theprovincial capital of Mopti in Mali. Togetherwith social worker Mamadou “Baba” Traoré,Gerner initiated the Rondom Baba Foundationin 2007. The foundation has bought a hectareof land and is teaching local people agricultur-al techniques and how to work wood, leather,and metal — an ideal partner for Chevalier. “Ineeded people who want to change their livesand set up their own businesses,” he says.None of the ten participants selected for thefirst workshop had a permanent job. Theyworked as day laborers; a joiner made furni-ture and a welder recycled scrap metal and oldcars at a junkyard.

When the preparations were completed inDecember 2009, Chevalier traveled to Mali forthe first time. It took him and the foundationtwo weeks to find the required components,although the materials were all locally avail-able. “I’m impatient, but everything’s different

How can electricity be supplied to some of the world’s poorest regions? Siemens engineer Piet-Willem Chevalier manufactureswind turbines in Mali and trains local people to build and servicethe technology. The result is a classic example of sustainability.

Sharing a Brighter Future | Wind in Mali

Do-it-Yourself Power

When night falls on Lake Victoria and thewaters grow dark, that’s when the work-

ing day begins for Pottas Aboy and his threeco-workers. The four Kenyan fishermen paddletheir boat out onto Africa’s largest lake — andkeep going until the shore is visible as only athin sliver in the distance. The men then care-fully place a small raft into the water. The raftcontains a blue battery; above it an Osram en-ergy-saving lamp dangles from a supportmade of branches. The water shimmers darkgreen in the light of the lamp. “The light main-ly attracts omena, a type of sardine,” Aboy ex-plains, and then gives his home-made raft agentle shove and watches it slowly disappearin the darkness on the lake. “Now we wait untilenough fish have gathered around the light ofthe raft,” says Aboy. “After that, we’ll toss a netaround the raft and pull it back in quickly.”Aboy stares into the night, where the onlything still visible is a small shimmering light —bobbing on a lake as big as Ireland. Equippedwith their new electric lamps, Aboy and his

three colleagues are pioneers among the ap-proximately 175,000 fishermen who fish inthe waters of Lake Victoria. While it’s true thatnative fishermen have been using light as baitfor generations, the light source has beenkerosene lamps. According to the Global Na-ture Fund (GNF), a development aid organiza-tion, this tradition has had fatal consequences:The highly flammable kerosene has resulted inmany fishermen being seriously burned. Thekerosene also leaks, further polluting what isalready not the cleanest water. Greenhousegases are an issue as well. The keroseneburned in lamps used around the lake pro-duces around 50,000 tons of CO2 per year, re-ports the GNF.

Nevertheless, it has been very difficult forpeople in the region to break with their tradi-tion, especially in view of the fact that most ofthe approximately 30 million people who livearound Lake Victoria have no access to electric-ity. So they are left with no choice, but to usethe toxic kerosene fuel — not just for fishing,

but also to light their homes. Things changedin April 2008, though, when Osram AG — awholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens which ispreparing to become a plublicly-listed lightingcompany —, GNF and the Kenyan companyThames Electricals began to offer an alterna-tive to provide clean and safe lighting sourcesto the people in the region, within the frame-work of Osram’s “Umeme Kwa Wote” (Energyfor Everyone) off-grid project. In 2011, the Os-ram pilot project has been joined by SiemensStiftung, the charitable foundation of Siemens.Together they now support the social enter-prise called “Light for Life” which is dedicatedto providing renewable energy services andpotable water to remote areas of Kenya by es-tablishing further so called WE!Hubs (WaterEnergy Hubs). “These hubs shall enable accessto the above described services, create jobs forthe local population, open up opportunities forentrepreneurship and education, and at thesame time are to achieve financial self-sustain-ability,” says Ulrike Wahl, Managing Director of

On the shores of Lake Victoria, people have been using kerosene lamps to catch fish and light their homesfor generations. But not only this dirty fuel poses a serious threat to health and the environment — con-taminated drinking water is another huge problem. That’s why the “WE!Hub” project has been set up by aproject consortium consisting of Osram, Siemens Stiftung, Global Nature Fund and Thames Electricals.


Sharing a Brighter Future | WE!Hub in Africa

A Glimmer of Hope for Lake Victoria

the Siemens Stiftung. “Until 2014 we plan tobuild at least five more of such hubs in remoteregions of Kenya, the three existing hubs ofthe pilot project will be expanded.” The pro-ject is co-financed by the EU Commission.

Self-Sufficient Charging Stations. The hubsare small battery charging stations powered byroof-mounted solar panels that make the hubscompletely independent of power grids. Thegenerated electricity is used for charging bat-


tery boxes, battery powered lanterns and cellphones. The villagers also obtain clean drink-ing water thanks to the water purification sys-tem installed in the hub. As access to electricityand communication becomes more and moreimportant in African countries, the hubs adaptto this demand and will soon offer furtherservices: Within 2012 they will be extended toinformation and communication technology(ICT) and internet services which enable ac-cess to education and connection to the“world” for people, who don’t have these digi-tal opportunities yet. To make people benefitmost from these developments, trainings onICT, entrepreneurship, environment and hy-giene will be conducted at the hubs. “Thepeople in the region can lease our energy-saving lamps from a WE!Hub, as well as

batteries that they can recharge at the samelocation,” explains Jochen Berner, Osram’s Di-rector for Sustainability Development. “Alongwith the lamps, we also provide purifieddrinking water and a mobile phone recharg-ing service.” Osram, which has already imple-mented three pilot kiosks at Lake Victoria incooperation with the GNF, is supporting thejoint project as a technology partner and isconsulting on technical and conceptual issues.One hub is located in the town of Mbita (popu-

lation: 15,000) on the eastern shore of LakeVictoria. The brick building that houses thehub is surrounded by corrugated iron shacks.Between the structures a few chickens peck atthe dust. Here, the world seems to be taking asiesta in the oppressive midday heat. Butthere’s plenty of activity taking place behindthe walls of the local hub, with its 64 solarpanels constantly pumping the energy fromtropical sunlight into batteries for energy-sav-ing lamps, at outputs of up to 15 kilowatts.

It takes approximately three hours tocharge the battery box, or the battery poweredlantern. When completely recharged, the bat-tery box can light up the 11-watt energy-sav-ing lamps from Osram for up to 12 hours, theLED equipped lantern runs up to ten hours.“That’s more than enough for a night of fishing,”says Berner. “But the main benefit offered by ourlamps is their low price.” He explains that thosewho would like to rent a lamp must leave a de-posit of around 1,000 Kenyan shillings, or ap-proximately €9. That’s a lot of money for peoplewhose average monthly income is only €35.“You have to keep in mind that the deposit costsabout as much as a new kerosene lantern, withthe difference being that our customers gettheir money back when they no longer need thelamp.” Berner also points out that the recharg-ing fee at the hub is relatively inexpensive whenyou consider that a fisherman uses around 1.5 liters of kerosene each night, which costsapproximately 150 shillings. “With us, the cus-tomer only pays 100 shillings a night, so theysave 30 percent.” In addition, customers can usethe batteries to power other devices such as mo-bile phones and radios.

While this economic model may sound con-vincing, in the beginning it didn’t generatemuch interest, as is true of many developmentproj ects. “People here tend to cling very strong -ly to their traditions, and the social and deci-sion-making structures are completely differentfrom those in industrialized countries,” Bernerexplains. “For example, if a man is interested inone of our lamps, it’s possible that his wifemight veto the decision because women are of-ten responsible for the family budget in Africa.”The Osram team therefore had to do a lot ofpersuading and patiently establish new rela-tionships. Nevertheless, as Berner reports, theysucceeded. “The three existing hubs serve 300fishing crews and 400 households,” he says.

Light at Mama Austin’s. Although the clean,bright lamps were originally developed for useby fishermen, they are now increasingly beingused in local households. In the village ofNyandiwa, around 50 kilometers south of Mbi-ta, for example, the lamps can be found in astore operated by Mama Austin. Her corrugat-ed shack is packed with all kinds of merchan-

People who do not have access to grid electricity

can lease energy-saving lamps at WE!Hub — and

obtain clean drinking water. Electricity is provided

by roof-mounted solar cells.

For generations, fishermen on Lake Victoria

have been attracting omena sardines

with lanterns — but these days they’re using

energy-saving lamps from Osram.

In the village of Adjuntitas Dos in the high-lands of the state of Querétaro, Mexico, time

seems to have stood still. Like everyone in thevillage, Artemio Juárez, the village elder, workshis steep, stony fields with a hoe, carrying seedin a bag slung over his shoulder. His mainmeans of transportation is a wheelbarrow.

There are no cars or trucks in this village ofabout 100 inhabitants, which is located 200kilometers north of Mexico City at an altitudeof 1,800 meters. The village’s 14 householdshave neither access to the public power gridnor running water, nor can they connect to afixed or mobile communications network.“We’re somehow lost up here in the hills,” saysLucía Cruz, Artemio Juárez’s wife. “We have noroads and nobody has an electric light.” Like

nearly 30,000 other people in the state ofQuerétaro, Cruz and her family have had to getby without electricity all their lives.

But those days are now over. Since the sum-mer of 2011, a little lamp goes on in the Cruzfamily’s home every evening. An Osram com-pact fluorescent light bulb illuminates thetable where they eat, and there’s another bulbover the hammock used by Bernardino, thecouple’s eight-year-old son. Electricity for thebulbs comes from a solar module on the roof.

As part of project “Luz Cerca de Todos”(Light close to everyone), Siemens technicianshave installed 182 solar modules in AdjuntitasDos and nine other communities within a ra-dius of 50 kilometers. They have also deliverednew batteries that store the electricity generat-

Some 30,000 people living in Mexico’s Querétaro mountainsaren’t connected to the power grid. To help them, Siemens hasinstalled solar power systems that supply more than 180 homes.

New Lives with Light

Sharing a Brighter Future | Photovoltaic Solutions


dise, and one wall is adorned with a poster ofU.S. President Barack Obama, whose grand-mother lives nearby. A lone Osram lamp hangsfrom the store’s ceiling. “I used to have to closethe store at sundown,” says Mama Austin.“Now I just turn on the lamp and keep the storeopen until nine — and business is better as aresult.” The bright light appeals not only to cus-tomers but to children. “They can come in theevening to study without ruining their eyes orhaving to breathe in smoke from kerosenelamps,” she adds.

The kerosene lamps are responsible forlung disease and most of the fires that the vil-lage has suffered, says Ben Otieno, who man-ages the hub in Nyandiwa. “Three houses onceburned down in just one month,” he recalls.“When that happens, the people are left withliterally nothing.” This is why Otieno believesthe success of the project hinges on makingpeople aware of the health benefits offered bythe Osram lamps.

Extremely Pure Drinking Water. The hubsalso provide drinking water — thanks in part tothe efforts of Otieno and his two colleagues,who have succeeded in convincing local peo-ple of the health benefits of pure water. Moreand more people are now coming to the smallfaucet at the front of the hub to fill their canis-ters with water, paying two shillings per liter.That’s an investment in good health, Otienobelieves, because many of the villagers drawtheir water from Lake Victoria and drink itwithout boiling it — although they wash theirclothes in the lake and use it as a toilet.

“That’s why we are hit with a cholera epi-demic here every year, and the lack of ade-quate medical care makes that an enormousproblem,” says Otieno. “Hub water, on the oth-er hand, is completely safe — and word of thathas spread throughout the village.”

The water is safe thanks to a sophisticatedtreatment unit that transforms rainwater andpond water into pure drinking water. “We canprocess up to 10,000 liters of water per daywith the unit,” reports Otieno, “and the qualityof the water is superior to that offered by ourpublic wells.” Otieno is convinced that the self-sufficient hubs with their integrated water pu-rification service have a bright future in Kenya.

For Pottas Aboy and his three fellow fisher-men, it’s time to go into action on the lakeagain. They row to the small light they see danc-ing on the waves in the distance. Mosquitoesappear as they reach the raft, but the men payno attention as they toss out their net and beginto pull it back. The water under the net beginsto bubble as the light of the lamp illuminates adense school of fish, making them look likepieces of silver treasure. Aboy’s working day hasbegun. Florian Martini

ed during the day. For the people in therugged, picturesque mountains, this has beenlike “daybreak in the evening,” says Juárez. NowBernardino can read a little before going tosleep, and his older sister has more time to doher homework. The two children are lookingforward to the day when they will be able to lis-ten to music and watch television — and to findout about what’s happening in the world.

While people in industrialized nations takepower from electrical sockets for granted, theInternational Energy Agency (IEA) reports that20 percent of the world’s population still has noaccess to electricity — that’s a total of 1.4 bil-lion people, most of whom live in Africa andSouth Asia. But even in Mexico, where electrifi-cation had reached almost 97 percent of the

population by 2010, 3.5 million people still livewithout electricity. Most of them are residentsof rural communities in remote locations, likeAdjuntitas Dos.

A World Bank report has shown that electric-ity can greatly improve living conditions in suchrural areas. Electrical power has positive effectson education, health, and economic develop-ment, according to the report. Electric lightingenables school children to study in the evening.Using light bulbs instead of candles improvesair quality in the home, and having televisionhelps people to stay informed about health andagricultural issues. What’s more, electrificationoften makes it possible to start mini businesses.For example, a villager with a refrigerator canrent space in it or sell cold beverages.

Helping People Live Better Lives. Plans callfor Querétaro to continue to improve services.Governor José Calzada plans to supply all resi-dents of the state with power by 2013.Siemens has played a crucial role in the initialsteps of this project. The company’s EnergySector not only opened a new power plant inQuerétaro in 2011 but also provided the€230,000 needed to pay for the solar modulesthat have been installed to date. It also organ-ized their installation. “In addition to creating

jobs and expanding our business in the region,we also want to contribute to the developmentof the communities. That’s why we organizeprograms that improve people’s quality of life,” says Louise Goeser, CEO of SiemensMesoamérica, who points out that Siemenswanted to set an example and show that itpays to support social development. But meet-ing these goals was not easy. Solar panels hadto be transported into the mountains. It tookeight weeks to install them in ten villages,some of which are a two-hour walk from thenext road. The work was complicated by peri-ods of torrential rainfall. For project leader JoséHernández the project has a powerful symboliccharacter. “The inhabitants of Querétaro repre-sent all people who have no access to electrici-

ty. We want to show how electricity can bringabout a decisive change in their lives,” he says.

Seeing the Light. Free power in AdjuntitasDos is enabling villagers to save a lot of money.“People here used to spend 40 percent of theirincome on candles, batteries, and fuel,” saysHernández. “They used car batteries to provideelectricity for TV viewing, for example.” Someof the farmers are using the savings to hireworkers. “They can cultivate larger areas,achieve bigger harvests, and improve their fi-nancial situation,” Hernández reports. Havinglight in the evening helps village children tostudy for longer periods. “The kids have to helptheir parents by working in the fields afterschool. They usually don’t get home until it’sdark outside,” says Hernández. Before, lightwas such a precious commodity that familiesconsidered it extravagant to light candles sothat children could do their homework. “Nowthe kids are doing their homework, and theirparents are in a better position to help them,”Hernández says. In addition to providing solarpower systems for private households,Siemens also installed ten slightly bigger com-munity systems in schools, churches and stor-age buildings that supply enough electricity fora refrigerator or a computer.

A report from the World Bank shows thatelectricity in rural areas is used primarily forlighting, followed by televisions and refrigera-tion. Electrical appliances and devices are stillrare in the mountains of Querétaro. “Somehouseholds have a radio, but very few have aTV or mobile phone,” says Hernández.

When electricity became available, the firstthing residents of Adjuntitas Dos had to learnwas how to use it intelligently. Typically, a fam-ily will have enough solar power for four lightbulbs and one radio for about four hours. “Weexplained to them that they would have toturn off the light and radio when leaving aroom,” Hernández recalls. “That disappointedthem a little at first, but on the whole they’revery happy about this change.” Ute Kehse

Solar modules and energy-saving bulbs

not only bring light to people in remote

regions of Mexico; they also improve

the quality of their lives.


Sharing a Brighter Future | Waste Recycling

Many people around the world manage to maintain a livelihoodby collecting, sorting, and recycling waste in cities. The SiemensFoundation is helping improve their working conditions.

Recyclable materials in trash help many

people in poor countries to survive. With

talent, plastic sheeting for advertising can

be turned into fashionable bags (bottom).

From Trash to Cash

T he huge landfills on the outskirts ofCochabamba, El Alto, La Paz, and Santa

Cruz are plain to see. Waste collectors — inmost cases women and children — siftthrough the foul-smelling mountains ofgarbage filling sacks with whatever recyclablesor other usable items they might find. Morethan 3,000 tons of waste is produced in thesefour cities every day. Swisscontact, a develop-ment organization, estimates that 80 percentof it could be recycled, and that waste separa-tion and recycling could create 20,000 jobs.However, most of the garbage ends up unsep-arated in landfills or on the streets — eventhough 70 percent of the population in Bo-livia’s major cities are served by waste disposalsystems. The problem is that smaller munici-palities don’t have enough funds to handle thetrash. “In such places, 40 percent of the peopleburn garbage, 33 percent throw it away ingreen spaces, some 16 percent dump it inrivers and seven percent simply bury it in theirown backyards,” says Matthias Nabholz, an on-site project manager for Swisscontact.

To improve waste management in manycities, the Siemens Foundation began support-ing the “Jobs and Income with Environmental

Management” project in 2010. Launched bySwisscontact in 2009, the project is designedto create public-private partnerships capable ofgradually establishing comprehensive systemsfor waste separation; the economical recyclingof plastic, glass, paper, metal, and organicwaste; and properly disposing of residualwaste in landfill sites. “We’re using existing ur-ban structures,” says Gerhard Hütter, the pro-ject’s manager at the Siemens Foundation.“We work with city districts — the lowest levelin the municipal administration hierarchy.Here, district officials reach agreements with‘informal’ waste collectors.”

The latter collect recyclables one to threetimes a week in specific assigned areas, cleanlyseparate what they find, and bring every-thing to nearby collection centers orcompost heaps. The collection centerssell the recyclable material to compa-nies in Bolivia and abroad. The in-come thus generated is paidto the collectors or investedin waste awareness cam-paigns. The project’s partnersalso run an educational pro-gram for children and adults

that has already reached around 75,000households. At the end of 2010, 200 wastecollectors — 40 percent of them women —were working on the project. “In 2010, their ef-forts rescued around 7,000 tons of recyclablewaste from landfills,” says Hütter.

The right incentives help the project tofunction properly. For example, waste collec-tors are issued work clothes, handcarts, and in-formation on hazardous waste. Just as impor-tant is their steady daily income of around $6per day and an improvement in their social sta-tus. The project also supports budding entre-preneurs by offering continuing educationalopportunities. “We can already report somesuccess stories,” Nabholz says proudly. One ofthem involves Daniela Bolívar, a graphic de-signer from La Paz. She now runs a small recy-cling company that converts used plasticsheeting for advertisements into bags and ac-cessories (see picture below).

“Still, over the long term you need to havebinding legal stipulations for waste manage-ment,” says Hütter. The issue is currently beingaddressed by the project’s partners and city au-thorities. “Cochabamba has announced plansto provide $1 million for the project’s expan-sion, and La Paz has appointed its own projectcoordinator,” says Nabholz. This is important,because every ton of waste that’s disposedgenerates costs of around $30. And that is byno means peanuts for a country like Bolivia.The first project phase is scheduled to run untilthe end of 2012.

If possible, the partners would like to offerdaycare services for the children of collectorsfor as long as they continue to work. Coopera-tion with local schools is very important to

the Siemens Foundation. “We’d like to getchildren and young people focused as

early as possible on the environment,health, and hygiene,” says Hütter.

In the future, the project’s part-ners also want to pay special at-tention to problems related totoxic waste and the growingamounts of electronic scrap.

Hülya Dagli


In rural India, specially trained healthcare

personnel collect villagers’ medical data and

forward it to mobile physicians via smartphone.

Their goal is to improve medical treatment and

reduce the high rate of infant mortality.

Sharing a Brighter Future | Mobile Medics

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Siemens and Christian Medical College are testing the use of cell phones to provide healthcare in rural areas. The phones transfer patients’ medical datato hospitals where analytical software helps to focus resources by tracking disease trends.

Tracking Illnesses in India

T he bus arrived on time today. Once amonth, remote areas in Tamil Nadu, In-

dia’s southernmost state, are visited by a doc-tor’s office on wheels operated by the Chris-tian Medical College (CMC) in the city ofVellore. Crowds of people flock from surround-ing villages to consult their doctors or haveblood samples taken. On these occasions the“ASHAs” make their appearance too. ASHAs, orAccredited Social Healthcare Activists, arewomen who volunteer to provide health edu-cation in villages, collect the residents’ healthdata, and support pregnant women before andafter they give birth.

The process of using ASHAs and bringingdoctors to villages in medical buses originatedwith the “National Rural Health Mission2005–2012” initiative, which was launched bythe Indian government in 2005. The programwas intended to improve healthcare for ruralpopulations. The Indian subcontinent suffersnot only from a severe shortage of physicians— there is a deficit of about 600,000 doctorscountrywide — but also from a large gap be-tween the urban and rural populations regard-ing the availability of health care. For every100,000 residents, there were about 4.48 hos-

pitals in urban areas and 0.77 in rural areas in2005. What’s more, in 2010 there were sixtimes as many physicians in cities as in thecountryside, where about 70 percent of all In-dians live.

Prior to this health care initiative, many In-dians in the countryside had hardly any con-tact with modern Western medicine. Instead,they relied on traditional treatments known bythe acronym AYUSH — Ayurveda, yoga, Unani(an Arabic counterpart of Ayurveda), Siddha(southern Indian naturopathy), and homeopa-thy — which are practiced by AYUSH doctorstrained at universities. The ASHAs now act aslinks between villagers and the doctors in hos-pitals. Since a primary goal of the initiative isto lower the child mortality rate, only womenare used as ASHAs. ASHAs go from house tohouse at regular intervals and inquire about ill-nesses and the health of pregnant women. To-day, they still record all the information theyobtain in a book. However, a paper-based sys-tem of this kind may be incompatible with theinformation storage media used at hospitals,which in some cases already maintain elec-tronic patient records. ASHAs also have to care-fully protect their notes from damage.

Mobile Healthcare. Three years ago, Dhan-dapany Raghavan, who heads Siemens Health-care in India, had the idea of letting ASHAsrecord medical data via cell phones. “We soonrealized that we need a competent and experi-enced partner for this, and we’re proud to beworking with the Christian Medical College,”says Manohar Kollegal of Siemens CorporateTechnology (CT) in the Indian city of Banga-lore. CMC has been active in this part of Indiafor over 50 years and is very familiar with localconditions. The college has helped Siemens CT



to develop a pilot project called the “Communi-ty Health Information System” (CHIS), whichhas already been tested in some villages. “Dur-ing the first test phase, ASHAs tried out the cellphones,” says Prof. George Kuryan, head of theCommunity Health Department at CMC in Vellore. “They’re very excited about using them and the possibilities offered by the newtechnology.” After the testing phase, 83 vil-lages with a total population of about 100,000people are expected to take part in the CHISproject.

An ASHA starts her work by downloadingvillagers’ up-to-date demographic data, includ-ing some health information from a hospitalserver, to her smartphone. This tells her whatshe should look out for when examining par-ticular villagers. Later, after she has recordedall the data from a village, she transfers it viathe mobile communications network to the

hospital server, or she can upload the data to alaptop the doctors have brought with them inthe bus. “In both cases, doctors first have tocheck that the data is correct before it’s storedon the server. This is for quality control,” saysKollegal. The data transferred to the server isincluded directly in patient records and under-goes statistical analysis. All the software usedin the process, from the cell phone to the lap-top, was developed by Siemens CorporateTechnology.

One of the ASHAs’ focus areas is on sup-porting women during pregnancy, preparingfor birth, and providing postnatal and postpar-tum care. According to the World Health Or-ganization, 37 of every 1,000 Indian newbornsdied within the first four weeks of life in 2008.By comparison, Germany had a mortality rateof three in 1,000 newborns that year. After adelivery, an ASHA therefore records data suchas the baby’s weight and heart rate. If an emer-gency occurs, she can call a doctor on her cellphone.

Siemens CT India also hopes to provide bet-ter support to doctors by developing inexpen-

sive medical devices that are usable by trainedlaypersons, such as the ASHAs, provide reliableresults, and are robust enough to operate de-pendably in adverse conditions. The top priori-ty in this regard is to provide support for preg-nant women. The device currently at the mostadvanced stage of development is the Fetal

Heart Rate Monitor (see Pictures of the Future,Fall 2010, p. 44 and p. 56), a sort of stetho-scope that automatically measures and dis-plays the heart rate of an unborn child. Produc-tion of this device will soon begin at a Siemensplant in Goa. After the test phase of the project

has been completed, the ASHAs in 83 villagesin Tamil Nadu will be equipped with cellphones and, later on, with Fetal Heart RateMonitors.

In the case of premature births, it is alsocommon to monitor not just the heart and res-piratory rates but also blood oxygenation. Withthis in mind, CT India is developing a portabledevice for ASHAs that measures respirationand a pulse oximeter, which uses sensors tomeasure the oxygen saturation of arterialblood after the skin is exposed to infraredlight.

Technology for Emerging Economies. In-creasingly, the typical diseases of modern civi-lization are spreading in India. For instance,there are already over 40 million diabetics onthe subcontinent, and each year about twomillion people suffer a heart attack. Indian au-thorities estimate that by 2020 over seven mil-lion Indians will die of chronic illnesses eachyear. The reasons for this include populationgrowth as well as the country’s rising prosperi-ty. CT developments are therefore also focus-

ing on simple devices for investigating cardio-vascular illnesses, such as mobile ECG devices.Also in planning are easy-to-use systems for re-mote patient monitoring. “These devices we’redeveloping are tailored to the needs of emerg-ing countries like India,” says Kollegal. “Sincewe need a great quantity of devices for our

large population, we have tosupply them at the lowest pos-sible price. These devices alsohave to be as easy as possibleto use and they must be virtu-ally maintenance-free.”

Another challenge faced byIndian society is infectious diseases. India ac-counts for a fifth of the world’s cases of tuber-culosis — and a large proportion of these oc-cur in rural areas. The biggest problem in thiscontext is contaminated water, which is alsopartly to blame for the high child mortality

rate: Every day, over 1,000 children in India dieof diarrheal illnesses. ASHAs therefore keep arecord of all cases of diarrhea in their villages.Using analytical software, CT researchers canevaluate the database of its project partner inthe hospital and pinpoint those villages inwhich cases of diarrhea occur very frequently.Now that tests have been completed, the firstmobile water treatment systems from SiemensWater Technology will soon be delivered tothose villages most affected by diarrheal ill-nesses.

For Kollegal it is already clear that the CHISproject is a successful model that can be car-ried over to other Indian states and to othercountries. In its next phase, the project couldbe extended to a million people in the neigh-boring state of Andhra Pradesh. But as Kollegalknows, there is still a long way to go beforethat happens.

Annapurna Verma, has just finished trans-ferring her data from a cell phone to a laptop.She and her fellow ASHAs are done with theirexaminations for the day, and the bus startsmoving again. Michael Lang

Six times as many physicians prac-tice in the cities as in the country,where 70 percent of Indians live.

Healthcare policies always wind up beingeconomic policies as well. When China

began its economic reforms two decades ago,it rescinded its “Iron Rice Bowl” — the compre-hensive social safety net that included job se-curity and free medical care, and today manyrural Chinese have no health insurance andmust pay their own doctor bills.

“We thought about how to cut costs so thateveryone in China could afford to have a com-puted tomography (CT) examination if neces-sary,” says Florian Belohlavek, product market-ing manager for the SOMATOM Spirit CTscanner. The device is a part of the SiemensSMART Initiative, which is designed to developeconomical, robust, reliable, and easy-to-oper-ate devices particularly for use in rural areas ofdeveloping countries. The scanner is character-ized by a dual-slice system, which means thatone complete rotation of the X-ray tube aroundthe patient records two sectional images simul-taneously. That’s sufficient, for example, for es-sential routine examinations of the head, lungsand spine. The scanner’s moderate price makesit possible for even small hospitals in China to

adopt computed tomography. “The SOMATOMSpirit is usually the first CT scanner hospitalsbuy,” explains Belohlavek. That’s why Siemenshas customized its syngo user interface for thismodel. The device is manufactured in Shang-hai, from which it is supplied mainly to Brazil,Russia, India, and within China. Worldwidesales have already exceeded 2,000 of thesescanners. Also made in Shanghai is the SO-MATOM Emotion 6 and 16-slice CT scanner,which many hospitals acquire as a second unit.The unit’s fast scan time supports high patientthroughput. It also provides high image resolu-tion so that tumors and strokes, for example,can be diagnosed more reliably.

When more advanced imaging is needed,medical specialists in emerging economies aswell as their colleagues in industrial countries,use high-end equipment such as the SO-MATOM Definition Flash. This CT-Scanner canbe found mainly in large medical centers andprivate clinics.

High Tech in India’s Villages. In India toothe government is striving to improve rural

healthcare. Most Indians live in one of thecountry’s approximately 600,000 villages. Asin China, the penetration of health insurancein the rural population is very low. The situa-tion is aggravated by the fact that most physi-cians practice in cities, and many villages are aday’s journey away from the nearest hospital.That’s why in 2001 Siemens developed theconcept of a mini-clinic on wheels. The idea isto provide quality and affordable healthcare toIndia’s interior. The result is the “Sanjeevan” —a bus equipped with the most essential diag-nostic devices, including those for X-rays, ul-trasound, mammography, and basic lab tests,as well as a supply of refrigerated medications.More than 25 such buses have been sold to lo-cal governments, NGOs, and private health-care providers throughout India.

India is geographically subdivided into 600districts. Siemens professionals are currentlyinvestigating to what extent individual districtsare equipped with diagnostic devices. For ex-ample, they have found that some districtshave no CT systems or catheterization labora-tories. Fewer than 200 districts have a magnet-


Sharing a Brighter Future | Healthcare

Pragmatic, cost-efficient solutions are being used in emerging economies to provide basic medical care for people in rural areas. But high-end devices are also used in those countries, especially in well-equipped medical centers in major cities.

No One Left Behind

The “Sanjeevan” bus offers modern healthcare

to Indian villages. In Colombia, cardiologist

Antonio Dager relies on high technology

from Siemens (p. 29 center), as do health

care providers in Chinese provinces (right).


ic resonance imaging system (MRI). Experts atSiemens Corporate Technology (CT) in Banga-lore are exploring how they can contribute tothe country’s rural healthcare system. “Sincethe people in the countryside have to pay thedoctor themselves, they won’t see one until it’salmost too late,” says Manohar Kollegal, pro-gram manager for Healthcare Products at CT.“What we need most is better prevention andmore affordable examinations,” he adds. Heand his colleagues are developing a diagnosticdevice for analyses of urine, blood, and serum,for example. “We strive to achieve a high quali-ty standard at reasonable cost,” he explains.The prototype is to be completed in the earlysummer of 2012.

Another device the Indian Corporate Tech-nology team developed is the Fetal Heart RateMonitor (see Pictures of the Future, Spring2011, p. 88) for monitoring the heart rate of afetus. The device not only measures the fetalheart rate via a sort of microphone but also the

mother’s uterine contractions. Having com-pleted its clinical trials in 2011, it is now readyfor clinical use in India, and is expected to helpreduce India’s high infant mortality. “We havedeveloped proprietary algorithms for our soft-ware and incorporated region-specific diag-nostic alarms regarding the fetal heart rate,”Kollegal explains.

More advanced solutions, this time in thearea of artificial Intelligence, are being imple-mented at locations throughout Siemens. Forexample, researchers in the United States andGermany are developing a clinical decisionsupport system that analyzes patient data andsuggests the most likely diagnosis to the at-tending physician (see Pictures of the Future,Fall 2011, p. 60). The system is being devel-oped by Dr. Vinay Shet and his team within theCollective Intelligence lighthouse project.

Ultrasound in Mexico. India is by no meansthe only country to have a high infant mortali-ty rate. In Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state,healthcare education and delivery for the

mostly indigenous population is hampered bylanguage barriers and cultural differences aswell as geography that makes access difficult.To improve on-site healthcare delivery,Siemens has provided 44 ultrasound devices tocommunity health centers. The devices areused for examining pregnant women and

small children. Since the devices were intro-duced two years ago, infant mortality in Chia-pas has declined by five percent.

“The Chiapas government has also pur-chased 35 Polymobil Plus mobile X-ray unitsfrom Siemens,” says Mauricio Valero, head ofsales for clinical products in Central America.The units are simple to install and clean, and

their maintenance costs are low. They are usednot only in small hospitals but also in primarycare facilities, which often comprise only a sin-gle room. In addition to these measures, theMexican government is also seeking to im-prove the healthcare infrastructure of Chiapasby building three new hospitals in urban cen-ters. As a part of its breast cancer screeningprogram, the government has equipped twofirst-level private clinics in Mexico City andMonterrey with a digital mammography sys-tem and an ultrasound device for automatic3D breast scans (see Pictures of the Future, Fall2008, p. 95).

The combination of ultrasound and mam-mography is considered the best method fordetecting breast cancer and avoiding false pos-itives and superfluous biopsies. The govern-ment plans to install another six to ten suchdevices in smaller cities. And it is planning tohave the medical images from such screeningsinterpreted centrally by two or three highlyspecialized experts in Tuxtla, the capital city ofthe State of Chiapas. The images will be trans-

mitted to these experts via data links. “The installation of the required telematics in-frastructure is slated to be completed in 18 to24 months,” says Valero.

Patients from Central and South America aswell as the U.S. are attracted by the An-giografía de Occidente hospital in Cali, Colom-

bia’s third-largest city. The hos-pital, which has obtained JCI(Joint Commission Internation-al) certification, is where Dr. An-tonio Dager operates. Dager isthe only cardiologist in Colom-bia who is qualified to use a

new minimally invasive procedure to replaceheart valves.

Dr. Dager, who received training in the U.S.,uses two Artis Zee angiography systems plussyngo DynaCT Cardiac software, which pro-vides him with 3D images from the body’s inte-rior during the procedure. Over the past threeyears Dager has performed 90 such proce-

dures. He is now equipping a hybrid laboratoryin which he will be able to perform both mini-mally invasive and open heart procedures. “Inorder to plan this lab, I visited Siemens in Er-langen last year, where I learned all I needed toknow about the required infrastructure. I wasable to actually practice all the steps of the pro-cedure in a hybrid lab,” he reports.

China, India, Mexico and Columbia — theseexamples illustrate that high-end medical careis making progress not only in developed coun-tries, but in emerging economies as well. De-spite their economic advances, these countriesneed to pay as much attention to cost factorsas do industrialized countries.

But the challenges in providing healthcareto rural populations — often in relatively inac-cessible areas — are disproportionately large.Nonetheless, many developing countries man-age to use a practical mix of moderate-cost so-lutions for basic medical care delivery in ruralareas plus high-end solutions for specializedcare in large cities to improve the health oftheir citizens. Michael Lang

A mobile clinic fitted with high-techequipment provides healthcare in the Indian hinterland.


Sharing a Brighter Future | Healthcare in a Rain Forest

Until recently, the inhabitants of Brazil’s Amazon region had to travel to cities for many types of medical treatment. Now, a private initiative is changing that by providing medical services in the rain forest itself. Siemens is supplying mobile ultrasound devices to support the effort.

Clinic under the Palms

Indios such as Paiki and his family (below)

and the entire village of Kikretum profit

from a health expedition into the Amazon.

Examinations and even operations are

conducted on site (right-hand page).

Paiki pulls in his line for the last time. He’salready landed three catfish and five pira-

nhas, but that’s not the most he’s ever caught.“The fish don’t bite as much in the rainy sea-son,” he says, “but it gets easier to catch themagain when the river subsides.” Paiki is very fa-miliar with the laws of the rainforest. He haslived in the Amazon jungle his whole life andhas been hunting wild boar, tortoises, and fishsince he was a child.

Paiki starts up the outboard motor of hissmall boat and begins to maneuver slowly andskillfully through the treetops rising out of thewater. When the dry season begins in a fewweeks, the water level of the Rio Fresco willsink by up to ten meters and the tree trunkswill become visible again. At the moment theyare still concealed beneath the masses of yel-low-brown water that are racing through theBrazilian state of Pará.

Paiki, who is 31, had a dentist appointmentthis morning in his village, Kikretum, which israther remote even by Amazonian standards.Kikretum has 500 inhabitants and is located in

the center of the territory occupied by theKayapo tribe. Here there is nothing but rainforest as far as the eye can see. The nearest bigcity, Marabá, is two hours away by plane, andit’s six hours by boat to the smaller city of SãoFelix do Xingú.

In any case, Paiki thought it was more im-portant to fish today since he has four childrento feed. His wife gave birth a week ago to a boy— something that makes Paiki particularlyproud. Perhaps the little one will grow up tobecome a Kayapo warrior. The associated ritu-als won’t be easy, though. For example, theboy will have to tear off part of a wasp nest,and the angry insects will sting him over andover again in this test of courage. That’s simplythe way it is here.

An assistant nurse from Brazil’s SecretariaEspecial de Saúde Indígena (SESAI) health de-partment was present when Paiki’s youngestson was born. Nevertheless, doctors and den-tists generally make only fleeting one-day vis-its to extremely remote Indio villages like Pai-ki’s. “The shaman, an indigenous healer, treats

us when we get sick,” says Paiki as he ducks toavoid a thick hanging branch on the way toKikretum. The shaman takes care of things likesnake bites and “illnesses of the spirit,” which ishow the Kayapo describe psychological disor-ders. He realizes quickly whether an ailmenthas to do with the water spirit and whether hispatients should be given herbs or perhaps beordered to avoid certain foods. Still, theshaman isn’t much help with tuberculosis, her-nias or malaria. These days, many Kayapo aredemanding better provision of what they call“the white man’s medicine.”

A Territory the Size of Austria. SESAI’s rainforest doctors regularly visit Kikretum in a sin-gle-engine airplane. This aircraft is necessarybecause the 7,000 Kayapo are spread across aterritory the size of Austria. The physicians areunable to treat many cases on site. In such sit-uations, they send their Indio patients to hos-pitals in cities as far as Belém, which has a pop-ulation in the millions and is located near thefaraway Atlantic coast. “One of my sons had


pneumonia once,” Paiki recalls. “It took sixweeks to treat him in Belém. We stayed withhim the whole time and slept on plastic chairs inthe hospital. It would be a lot easier if we couldget more medical treatment in our villages.”

Paiki’s wish is now coming true. 20 doctorsarrived recently, something that had neverbeen seen before in Kayapo territory. Physi-cians and nurses from the Expedicionários deSaúde (EDS) non-governmental organization,which is financed solely through donations,have transformed the village school in Kikre-tum into a small hospital for a ten-day stay.They have built tents and cranked up dieselgenerators, and have brought with them airconditioners, surgical instruments, and evenultrasound units from Siemens. The dreadeddentists have also come as part of the group.The Indios claim that their encounters withthese medical professionals more often thannot cause them to lose a tooth rather than getone saved — so they are reluctant patients.

Paiki’s boat is getting closer to his village,and he can already see that there’s a lot goingon at the shore. A ferry has just arrived fromGorotiri, another Kayapo settlement. The ves-sel has brought patients — and therefore work— for the eye doctors, the pediatrician, thesurgeon, the gynecologist, and the otherphysicians, who together will conduct around1,700 examinations and treatments (includingmore than 70 operations) during their stay.Paiki ties up his boat and strolls through thecrowd. He has run a narrow pliable branchthrough the gills of his freshly caught fish andknotted the ends. The fish hang on the sticklike a string of pearls — the long fat catfish andthe piranhas with their deadly sharp teeth.They’ll soon be swimming in a soup. Many ofthe new arrivals from Gorotiri have broughtcompanions with them. Some have bows andarrows. They plan to hunt for their food duringtheir stay in Kikretum. A cage holding an impa-tient parrot with fluttering wings seems lost inthe crowd; a young Kayapo girl picks ants outof her rat’s fur.

The fact that a boat full of patients haslanded here is a minor success when you con-sider that rumors had spread in Gorotiri thatthe doctors pull out the eyes of patients andreplace them with river dolphin eyes. The vil-lage elders had to convince the sick peoplethat they would be helped in Kikretum. The sea-soned Kayapo warrior Akiaboro set a good exam-ple. He, who considers himself a political leaderof the Kayapo, stands up straight as he movesthrough the crowd, with yellow-green parrotfeathers adorning his head. “There are some ill-nesses that the white man can treat better thanthe shamans,” he says. “I myself came to Kikre-tum to get a checkup.” Akiaboro also wants tosee the dentist because there’s somethingwrong with one of his root canals. “I haven’t sleptfor days because of the pain,” he confides.

Paiki’s visit to the dentist is still far off. It’snow afternoon and there’s a big line in front ofthe village school. A Kayapo girl is playing soc-cer with a balloon; her skin is covered with or-namental painting, and colorful chains hangfrom her wrists and ankles. Before the patientsare sent to the right treatment station at theschool, their names are entered into a comput-er. The nurses stick labels of various colorsonto the skin of the Indios to indicate to otherpersonnel where they need to go. “Blue standsfor the eye doctor, pink for the gynecologist,yellow for the pediatrician, and green meansthe operating tent,” says Claudio Braga, whoruns the computers.

Wireless Network in a Forest. Kikretum’s in-stant hospital has an IT system that would bethe envy of many facilities. “Our 11 laptops arelinked in a wireless network; and all of the pa-tient files are digital and are accessible in the

treatment and operating tents as well,” Bragasays proudly. “Virtually no other Brazilian hos-pital has such a high IT standard — but we’vegot it here in the rain forest.”

Examination equipment and surgical instru-ments are cleaned in a sterilization room be-hind Braga’s desk, which holds the computersand the printer. Two young members of theKayapo tribe are now covering the roof of aplatform with fresh palm leaves. This helpsmany of the older patients, some of whom canhardly see any more. The powerful rays of thesun cause the lenses of the natives’ eyes to blursooner here than elsewhere. It’s not surprisingthat cataracts are a big problem here.

“The illnesses we diagnose have a lot to dowith environmental conditions and the Indiolifestyle,” says Fabio Atui, a surgeon with a pri-

vate practice in São Paulowho also works at one of themegacity’s best hospitals.Even though Atui has a fami-ly, he always takes unpaid va-cation time to join the EDS ex-peditions, which have been

carried out since 2003. He considers it impor-tant to bring first-class medical services to theremote regions of the Amazon. “People in thetropical rain forest often suffer from infectiousdiseases, fungi, and scabies,” he explains. “Theymove around a lot, walk for miles, and carryheavy loads, which is why hernias are common,whereas heart problems are rare.”

When he’s in the jungle, he works in the op-erating tent. Those who wish to enter mustfirst put on a pair of blue overalls and a surgicalmask in a closed-off anteroom. Atui also wearswhite latex gloves. He now has a hernia pa-tient under the knife. Several surgical instru-ments are now in the incision; a monitor dis-plays the patient’s vital functions. An airconditioner continually pumps cool air into thetent, but outside it’s hot and humid — typicalAmazon weather.

“We only do certain kinds of operations inthe rain forest,” Atui says. “The diagnoses have

“Virtually no other Brazilian hospitalhas such a high IT standard — butwe’ve got it here in the rain forest.”

Iria Novaes, a gynecologist, and Fabio Atui, a surgeon, use ultrasound equipment from Siemens during a stay with the Indios in the Amazon.

to be quick and unequivocal, and the opera-tions may not require any complicated prepa-rations or post-surgical treatments. After all,we’re only here for ten days.” The diagnoses inparticular are a major challenge, because EDSdoesn’t provide any X-ray machines, as theyare too big and heavy to transport. Still, Atuican rely on a handy ultrasound unit thatSiemens provides at no cost.

He and his fellow physicians, as well asnurses and other assistants, voluntarily forgothe comforts of civilization and privacy whenthey carry out their mission. For example, thelatrines and showers are in a wooden shednext to the kitchen, and instead of eating at anice restaurant in the city, staff members ladleout a mixture of rice, beans, and meat forthemselves from a large pot. On the firstevening, expedition director Ricardo AffonsoFerreira tells the young doctors who are partic-ipating in the project for the first time, “It’s aprivilege to be here. We want to show the In-dios our respect. We don’t expect any thanks— we’re not 21st-century missionaries.”

Atui sees things the same way. He’s con-vinced that the only way to prevent further de-forestation is to make sure the Indios continueto inhabit the rain forest and view it as theirhome. He believes it’s wrong to send them to acity for a few weeks for medical treatment.Many Indios are already exposed to the prom-ise of luxury and good times in urban areasthrough TV stations that broadcast the Carni-val in Rio live to the huts of Kikretum. They alsowatch the music videos of American pop stars,not to mention the daily Brazilian soap operasthat also display images of material prosperity.

Older members of the Kayapo can well re-member all the things money can buy. Back inthe 1980s, gold was discovered in Kayapo ter-ritory, attracting all kinds of fortune hunters.The gold diggers who swarmed into the regionhad to pay the Indios a fee for what they ex-tracted, and the Kayapo actually ended upbuying airplanes with the money. However,the gold supply was depleted after a few years,

and the quick cash the Kayapo had made alsoquickly disappeared. By this time, prostitutionand drug dealing had established themselveson the outskirts of the reservation: “Civiliza-tion” had found its way into the rain forest.

High Infant Mortality. Paiki has two televi-sions in his hut, where he now arrives with hiscatch. Garbage is lying around, and the fami-ly’s few possessions are stored in plastic bagsthat hang on the walls. Paiki shares his hutwith another family. Everyone sleeps on thefloor, in tents, or in hammocks. Paiki’s wife islying in one of the hammocks and nursing thenew baby. Young Indios in particular sufferfrom the effects of poor hygiene and the hu-mid climate of the Amazon. Respiratory dis-eases are common among children, and doc-tors say the child mortality rate is nearly tentimes higher here than in São Paulo.

“Many women don’t like to be examined,”says Iria Novaes, a gynecologist from Camp-inas. “For most of the women I see, it’s the firstgynecological examination they’ve ever had intheir life.” Novaes is supported in her work byone of two ultrasound units that Siemens sup-plied to EDS to supplement the company’s fi-nancial assistance to the expeditions. Oneevening, just before she retires to her tent forthe night, Novaes talks about the people shehas treated earlier in the day. One patient wasa 27-year-old woman who Novaes was very

concerned about because she suspected thewoman had cancer. Novaes took a tissue sam-ple and sent it to the university hospital inCampinas for analysis. Meanwhile, her own ex-amination with the ultrasound unit revealed atleast one piece of good news: No apparentsigns of metastases, indicating that there wasstill hope and time for treatment and recovery.

Communication between doctors and pa-tients across cultural barriers is no easy thing.Although the expedition includes interpreters,and some Kayapo — like Paiki — who speakenough Portuguese to get by, language is stilla problem. In addition, many gestures that areimportant in doctor-patient communicationare not understood. The Amazon region isn’tthe only place where physicians face suchproblems. The situation of the indigenous peo-ple in Brazil is extreme in many respects, butthere are in fact billions of people in rural areasaround the world who have only limited accessto medical care and treatment (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2011, p. 88).

Their situation can be improved at an af-fordable cost if two conditions can be met, asthey are in the EDS expeditions: The physiciansmust be dedicated, and they must be providedwith modern and affordable technology to as-sist them. Instead of exporting its devices,Siemens is now manufacturing more and moremedical equipment directly in emerging mar-kets in order to ensure that state-of-the-art

Celso Takashi Nakano, an eye doctor, collected a large number of donations, which is why he is now able to utilize the most modern equipment on the market.

When the rain forest doctors arrive tents are built and transformed into small hospitals.


Back in 1970, if the Gulf Coast Waste Dis-posal Authority of Texas had known what

was coming, it would probably have aban-doned its idea immediately. The agency haddecided to build a petrochemical waste dispos-al facility in the Galveston Bay area. Althoughthe project was never carried out, it cost theagency more than $10 million to deal with allthe protests and local citizen initiatives thatseemed to come out of nowhere.

After 15 years of legal battles and countlesscourt rulings in favor of citizens, public officialsfinally invited citizen groups to a mediationsession at the Keystone Center in Denver, Col-

orado, a prestigious institute for conflict reso-lution. This didn’t help, though. By then, citi-zens were simply too enraged — and thedamage had already been done. After anotherfive years had passed, several members of thecitizens’ initiatives were elected to the GulfCoast Waste Disposal Authority executiveboard. The NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) prin-ciple had prevailed, and the waste disposalproject was history.

But a look at Switzerland and Brazil showsthat things can work out differently in such sit-uations. On a winter day in 2011 helicopterstransported 20 heavy steel components to adrilling site where a geothermal power facilitywas to be built in eastern Switzerland. The cityof St. Gallen wanted to reduce its use of fossilfuels to just 25 percent of the energy mix by2050 and provide geothermal heat to half ofits 44,000 residences. This energy source is cli-


medical technology can be provided at reason-able prices.

Celso Takashi Nakano, an eye doctor, thinksit’s wrong to have to work with second-class ordiscarded equipment just because he’s in a rainforest. Nakano collected a large number of do-nations, which is why he is now able to utilizethe most modern equipment on the market. Heoperates mostly on cataracts, one after the oth-er — as often as 20 times a day. “We have themost difficult cases in the world here,” he says.

It’s a huge challenge, even for Nakano, whois considered the best man for the most com-plicated cases at the university hospital in SãoPaulo. “The Kayapos’ pupils barely dilate,which is probably due to their diet,” he says.This makes his work very difficult, because hehas to insert his surgical instrument into thenarrow pupils. It’s 9:30 a.m. — time forNakano’s first patient. He uses an ultrasounddevice to shatter the man’s blurred and hard-ened lens and then inserts a new lens with atiny pair of tweezers. His patients wake upfrom their anesthesia in a hammock in the vil-lage school a little while after their operation,a thick bandage wrapped around the eye thathas been operated on.

One of the first patients, whose bandage hassince been removed, pays a visit to the doctorsduring lunch. The sunglasses he’s now wearingmake him look like an aging rock star. “Checkout how clearly I can see now!” he cries out inPortuguese as he takes off his glasses. Prior tohis operation, he had only 15 percent of hissight, but soon — after his eye is completelyhealed — it could return to more than 80 per-cent. The doctors call out to him a friendly“Meikumé!” — a Kayapo phrase that translatesmore or less into “All right!” Toward the end oftheir stay, some members of the expeditionteam actually start wearing the tribe’s tradition-al painted decorations.

The closer the end of the expedition ap-proaches, the longer the line gets in front ofthe dentists’ tent. Word has spread that thedentists who have come this time save more

teeth than they pull, so those who have yet tosee a dentist — or were afraid to before —now want to get their turn. A sign in front ofthe tent says “kekét meitere” — “nice smile.” AsPedro Affonso Ferreira from Campinas pointsout, the dentists here have to do their bestwork because “we don’t have enough speciallamps. I have to use a headlamp even thoughits light causes some materials to harden tooquickly. That means I have to work faster.”

Hours of Rain. The sky has darkened againoutside, as it so often does in the afternoon.Leaves begin to rustle in the trees, and rain-drops that will soon turn into a downpour startfalling. Kikretum will then be transformed intoa swamp. Small makeshift wooden bridges —like those on the Piazza San Marco in Venicewhen the canals flood — allow the last pa-tients to get to their accommodation and tothe village school. One last boat comes in fromA’Ukre, and a larger one arrives from Gorotiri.On board are, among others, nine patientswith symptoms of malaria. Just two years agothere were hardly any cases of malaria in thispart of Kayapo territory, but this infectious dis-ease is now on the rise. Preventive measuresare the only thing that can help here; the EDSdoctors know that high-tech medicine and ispowerless against this deadly illness.

In just a few days, the expedition team willtake down the tents and take off from the jun-gle runway in their single-engine plane, whichwill fly them to the nearest major airport inMarabá. They will then travel on to the bigcities in southern Brazil where most of themlive and work. They won’t return to Kikretumfor some time, though, because each EDS ex-pedition is sent out to a new destination. Afterall, there are plenty of people throughout thevast Amazon region who are in need of med-ical attention and treatment.

Paiki walks back to the dock and watches asa young Kayapo boy flings rocks out into theRio Fresco with his slingshot. “They didn’t evendrill,” Paiki yells out happily. It seems that hehas finally made it to the dentist. He smiles andreveals teeth that have been repaired with a lotof shiny metal during the past few years. “We’llbe sad when the doctors leave,” he says. CanPaiki imagine that he himself might leave therain forest some day? That will never happen,he says. He belongs here. And although itmight be easy to sell the jewelry his wife makesin a big city, life there would be too complicat-ed; he always gets lost, he tells us. The boy onthe river bank has now begun to dance. In be-tween shots with his slingshot, he sings thechorus of a song in English that he recently sawperformed on television: “Baby, baby, baby, oh!Baby, baby, baby, oh!”

Andreas KleinschmidtThe doctors conducted around 1,700 examinations.


Many major public projects are often both complex and opaque. When the acceptance of projects of this kind wanes, transparent and structured procedures that enable citizens to participate in the decision-making process can help — as projects in Switzerland and Brazil have demonstrated.

Protests against a rail project in Stuttgart led to

demands for more citizen participation in decision-

making throughout Germany. Pictured is a mediation

meeting with former German Minister Heiner Geißler.

Let’s Make a Deal!Sharing a Brighter Future | Citizen Participation

mate-friendly and easy to access, because ex-tracting heat from a depth of 4,500 metersdoesn’t require any major facilities that couldprove to be an eyesore.

Still, the technology was by no meanswithout controversy, as a similar project inBasel, Switzerland’s third-largest city, had beenscrapped after a water injection for tappinginto geothermal sources triggered a minorearthquake in 2006. “Dialogue with local citi-zens was therefore very important for us,” saysMarco Huwiler, General Project Manager at St.Gallen’s public utility. “We also made sure ourproject was embedded in an extensive grass-roots democratic process.”

The utility started out in 2009 by gaugingthe opinion of some 50 interest groups and cit-izens through interviews conducted in cooper-ation with the independent Risk DialogueFoundation.

“St. Gallen is a relatively small city, a placewhere people generally know one another,”says Matthias Holenstein, a project manager atthe foundation. “That’s why we used the firstround of discussions to talk to the directors of

local associations, firefighters, long-standingmembers of the community, officials from in-dustry and political parties, young citizens andteachers, as these groups offered a very goodsampling of public opinion. We also conductedsample surveys to get the opinions of averagecitizens. We found there was a positive basic

attitude to our plan. But of course there werealso some open questions of a financial andtechnical nature.”

The city initiated a series of events to dis-cuss the issues and provide citizens with more

detailed information. Themain event was a public con-ference with some 400 par-ticipants that included closedworkshops, public presenta-tions, interaction with themedia to address the morecontroversial aspects of the

project, and a special exhibition on the geot-hermal project entitled “Journey to theDepths.” The Risk Dialogue Foundation tookpart in this process as an impartial observerthat brought subliminal emotions to the atten-tion of participants and presented differentviews of the project. “Because such issues were

Citizen commissions assessed the feasibility and risks of potential sites for a waste disposal facility.

over public projects (see p. 52). “Besides, thebattle lines had already been drawn.”

What to Do? Several years ago, Renn and histeam illustrated how to do things correctly dur-ing a dispute concerning a waste disposal facil-ity in the Swiss canton of Aargau. “These days,everyone understands the importance of effi-cient waste treatment, but the people in theaffected areas felt that they were being ex-posed to risks in the form of potential ground-water contamination,” says Piet Sellke, who

works at Dialogik. “There were 11 possiblesites here in Aargau, and the canton govern-ment let the citizens decide where the facilityshould ultimately be built.”

To this end, Renn and his team brought to-gether some 90 residents from 12 municipali-

ties in Aargau and divided them into four citi-zen commissions. Each municipality on the listof possible sites was asked to send two repre-sentatives to each of the four commissions.“Unlike other citizen participation setups, themunicipal authorities selected the citizens whowould take part,” Sellke explains. The commis-sion members included housewives, teachers,representatives of nature conservation soci-eties, farmers, and municipal councilors. “Notevery member had the same knowledge, sothe project team provided everyone with infor-

mation and written materialsfirst.”

The members were then askedto draw up criteria diagrams forassessing the proposed locationsin terms of suitability and risks.During this pro cess they were ableto address questions to specialists,

listen to expert testimony, and visit the sites inquestion. The criteria they came up with —e.g. environmental impact, the economic effi-ciency of the project — helped them comparethe different locations. After that, a closedworkshop was held in which waste disposal ex-perts evaluated the criteria and made theirown recommendations. The results were pre-sented to the citizens.

“The four citizen commissions organizedseparate workshops for the final assessment ofthe proposed sites,” says Renn. “The evalua-tions of the possible sites according to the cri-teria were discussed in small groups and in aplenary session. Finally, each site was put to avote.” One site, known as Eriwies, received themost votes in each of the groups. Five mem-bers of each commission were then selected toform a “Super Commission” to align the recom-mendations and forward the results to the au-thorities in the form of a citizen report. “At thebeginning, 80 percent of the members be-lieved their own municipality was not suitablefor the waste disposal plant,” Renn says. “But


Today, citizens participate in decisions concerning that holy of holies: the annual city budget.

The citizens of Recife, Brazil, have had a say in their city’s budget for ten years.

taken into account at an early stage, there wasno need to have any specific mediation be-tween the utility and other interest groups,”Holenstein explains.

The municipal parliament of St. Gallen ex-amined the results of this phase of citizen par-ticipation in the summer of 2010 and a refer-endum was held in the fall, in which 80percent of the electorate voted in favor of theproject. In Switzerland, grassroots instrumentssuch as initiatives and plebiscites ensure thatcorrections can be made if doubts about aproject should arise later. Moreover, the knowl-edge that they can defend themselves this wayif necessary gives citizens in Switzerland a feel-ing of security and enables the political systemto function effectively. “That’s not surprising,given that we’ve been practicing this type ofgrassroots democracy for the past few hun-dred years,” says Holenstein.

But why did dialogue fail at the KeystoneCenter in the U.S.? “Attempting to include citi-zens in a project that’s already been decidedon just doesn’t work,” says Professor OrtwinRenn, Director of the Dialogik institute inStuttgart, Germany, and a mediator in disputes

At a special show in St. Gallen, Switzerland, an elevator took visitors down 4,400 meters — at least virtually — to the projected site of a geothermal heat project.


In BriefClean water can be scarce, particularly in rural

areas, slums or after disasters. However, modern

membrane technology from Siemens can quickly

and safely provide people with the precious re-

source. (p. 63)

It was only 30 years ago, in 1979, that the first

wind turbine — with an output of 22 kilowatts —

entered service in Denmark. Piet-Willem Cheva-

lier, an engineer for dynamic wind turbine analy-

ses at Siemens Energy in Den Haag, has found a

way to offer this kind of zero-emission electricity

to some of the world’s poorest regions. A classic

example of sustainability. (p. 64)

For generations, people living around Lake

Victoria in East Africa have been using kerosene

lamps to catch fish and light their homes. How-

ever, these lamps pose a threat to both health

and the environment. The people also depend on

contaminated drinking water sources and it takes

them long distances to catch drinkable water

each day. The Water Energy Hub is a glimmer of

hope for those living around the lake. (p. 66)

The Mexican state of Querétaro is located in

central Mexico about two hours northwest of

Mexico City. While the capital Santiago de Queré-

taro has a good infrastructure, many highland vil-

lages and farms lack some basics, such as run-

ning water and access to the public power grid.

Siemens supports the Mexican charity project

“Luz cerca de todos” (Light close to everyone) in

the installation of solar panels that have changed

the life of people. (p. 68).

Health plays a pivotal role in sustainable devel-

opment. Emerging markets and developing coun-

tries have a lot of catching up to do in the area of

medical care. Siemens technologies support to

manage to use a practical mix of moderate-cost

solutions for basic healthcare delivery in rural ar-

eas plus high-end solutions for specialist care in

major cities. (p. 71, 73, 75)

Many governments worldwide are increasingly

encouraging the involvement of interested public

in their major infrastrucutre projects as a means of

improving openness, transparency and accounta-

bility of the decision-making process — projects

in Switzerland and Brazil lead the way. (p. 78)

PEOPLE:

SkyHydrant:

Rhett Butler, Siemens Water Technologies

[email protected]

Christine Weyrich, Siemens Stiftung

[email protected]

Mali wind power plant:

Piet Willem Chevalier, Siemens Energy

[email protected]

Lake Victoria:

Jochen Berner, Osram

[email protected]

Ulrike Susanne Wahl, Siemens Stiftung

[email protected]

Lights close to everyone in Mexico:

José Hernández, Siemens Mexico

[email protected]

Waste management in Bolivia:

Gerhard Hütter, Siemens Stiftung

[email protected]

Tracking illness in India:

Manohar Kollegal, Corporate Technology India

[email protected]

Healthcare in emerging countries:

Florian Belohlavek, Siemens Healthcare

[email protected]

Rain forest, clinic under palms:

Reynaldo Makoto Goto, Siemens Brazil

[email protected]

Public participation:

Matthias Holenstein, Risk Dialogue Foundation

[email protected]

Ortwinn Renn, research institute Dialogik

[email protected]

LINKS:

Siemens Stiftung:

www.siemens-stiftung.org

SkyJuice Foundation:

www.skyjuice.com.au

WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for

Water Supply and Sanitation:

www.wssinfo.org

7 Billion Actions campaign of the UNFPA:

www.7billionactions.org

Research institute Dialogik:

www.dialogik-expert.de

Risk Dialogue Foundation:

www.risiko-dialog.ch

by the end of the process, even the peoplefrom Eriwies were saying the facility should bebuilt there.” The entire procedure took approxi-mately two years, and the municipal govern-ment agreed with the decision the citizens hadmade.

Brazil: Home of Participatory Budgeting.These days the scope of citizen participationhas expanded beyond major projects into arealm previously considered untouchable: thebudget. “Participatory budgeting,” which gotits start in Brazil in 1989, is now a welcome ve-hicle for citizen participation in Europe as well.This process, which gives citizens a say in thedistribution of public funds, can take many dif-ferent forms. The Brazilian port city of Recife,which has a population of 1.6 million, receivedthe 2011 Reinhard Mohn Prize from the Ber-telsmann foundation for its budgetary policy.“We searched all over the world for exemplaryprojects that strengthen participation possibili-ties for all social groups,” says BertelsmannProject Manager Christina Tillmann. “The citi-zens of Recife decide every year on how tenpercent of their city’s budget will be allocated.Over 100,000 people take part in the process,which generated some 600 proposals in 2010.”

The program focuses on urban develop-ment projects for which citizens submit sug-gestions. The city government distributes fly-ers in all districts in advance so residents knowwhat’s on the agenda and what they have todo. To this end, Recife is divided into 18 “micro-regions,” which ensures that all districts canexpress their wishes. “As soon as at least tenpeople commit themselves to a proposal, it isexamined by the authorities in terms of itstechnical and financial feasibility,” Tillmann ex-plains.

This process is followed by public forums inwhich citizens select ten proposals per micro-region and elect delegates who are thentrained in budgetary matters and refine theproposals. “People who can’t come to the fo-rums can participate online,” says Tillmann.The delegates discuss the proposals with thecity council, which then decides on the appro-priate measures. “The completed budget planis presented to the micro-regions, and resi-dents elect representatives who monitor theimplementation of the projects,“ Tillmann ex-plains. Almost 5,000 measures in sectors suchas wastewater treatment, healthcare, and edu-cation have been approved by citizens andthen implemented since participatory budget-ing was launched in 2001.

“Problems affecting everyone must besolved by everyone,” declared Swiss authorFriedrich Dürrenmatt in his play The Physicists.Today, this statement seems more relevantthan ever before. Hülya Dagli


Would you like to know moreabout Siemens and our latestdevelopments?

I would like a free sample issue of Pictures of the Future I would like to cancel my Pictures of the Future subscription My new address is shown below Please send the magazine to… Please check the respective box(es) and fill in below:

Title, first name, last name

Company Department

Street, number

ZIP, City

Country

Telephone number, fax or e-mail

Pictures of the Future, Spring 2012 (English, German)Pictures of the Future, Fall 2011 (English, German)Pictures of the Future, Spring 2011(English, German)Pictures of the Future, Fall 2010 (English, German)

Pictures of the Future, Special Edition Rio+20 (English)Latin America Green City Index, environmental analyses of 17 major cities (English)African Green City Index, 15 cities (English)European Green City Index, Europe's major cities (English)U.S. and Canada Green City Index, 27 U.S. and Canadian cities (English)Asian Green City Index, 22 cities (English)

Additional informationabout Siemens innovations is available on the Internet at: www.siemens.com/innovation (Siemens’ R&D website) www.siemens.com/innovationnews (weekly media service)www.siemens.com/pof Pictures of the Future on the Internet, — also in Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, and TurkishPictures of the Future is also available as a free app at the App Store.

We would be glad to send you more information. Please check the box next tothe publication you wish to order and the language you need, and fax a copyof this page to +49 (0)9131 9192-591 or mail it to: Publicis Publishing, SusanGrünbaum-Süß — Postfach 3240, 91050 Erlangen, Germany, or contact us at:[email protected]. Please use Pictures of the Future, Rio+20 as the subject heading.

Books:Life in 2050 — How We Invent the Future Today (€19.95) Innovative Minds (€34.90). More information is available at: www.siemens.com/innovation/lifein2050 or via the book trade

Available issues of Pictures of the Future: (free of charge):

Pictures of the Future | Feedback



Pictures of the Future | Recommendations

Green City Index

How are cities in different parts of the world performing with respect to urban environmental sustainability? The Green City Index providesthe answer by assessing and comparing cities in terms of their environ-mental performance. These unique research projects, which are beingconducted by Siemens in cooperation with the Economist IntelligenceUnit, foster the understanding and achievement of urban environmen-tal sustainability and identify best practices that other cities may wantto follow.Each city is measured on the basis of approximately 30 indicators across eight to nine environmental categories. The assessment coversCO2 emissions, energy, buildings, land use, transport, water and sanita-tion, waste management, air quality and environmental governance.The series began in 2009 and now covers more than 120 cities in Europe, Latin America, Asia, North America and Africa. Seven cities inAustralia and New Zealand will be included in late 2012.

Life in 2050 — How We Invent the Future Today

We are on the threshold of a new era. Our planet’s climate is at risk.The century of oil is coming to an end, and the world’s energy supplymust be put on a new and sustainable foundation. In 2050 the numberof people living in cities will be almost as large as the world’s entirepopulation today — and for the first time in history, there will be moresenior citizens than children and young people.

That’s why researchers, inventors, and engineers must be more cre-ative today than ever before. Computers as medical assistants, robots as household servants, sensory organs for electric cars, buildings as energy traders, farms in skyscrapers, ceilings made of light, powerplants in deserts and on the high seas, supercomputers the size ofpeas, virtual universities, online factories — these are not visions but almost tangible realities in laboratories worldwide.

For 11 years now the magazine Pictures of the Future has been exploring the world of tomorrow. In 22 issues comprising over 2,200pages, Pictures of the Future has been investigating future trends andidentifying the important technologies that will shape our lives in the

coming decades. In the new book Life in 2050, Ulrich Eberl, Editor-in-Chief of Pictures of the Future, provides for the first time a compact,clearly structured summary of the key developments that will deter-mine how we live in the decades ahead. Considered in the light oftrends in society, business, and politics, these developments point theway forward as we journey into the future.

The book is intended primarily for young readers who are curiousabout how innovations are born, how various developments affect one another, which professions are needed, and how they can help toinvent tomorrow’s world. But staying informed about the work of to-day’s research centers and industrial companies is important for every-one — from schoolchildren and college students to researchers, profes-sors, managers, and politicians. Life in 2050 contains 240 pages ofclearly presented insights into the laboratories of the people who cre-ate the future and exciting glimpses of the world of tomorrow. It showsthat the challenges of the 21st century can be mastered — if we keepour minds open to potential solutions and have the courage to act.

Life in 2050

Ulrich Eberl, Beltz & Gelberg, €19.95.

Editor, English edition: Arthur F. Pease.

More information and a video are online at

www.siemens.com/innovation/lifein2050Zukunft 2050 (German), Ulrich Eberl,

Verlag Beltz & Gelberg, €17.95.

siemens.de/innovation/zukunft2050

Publisher: Siemens AGCorporate Communications (CC) and Corporate Technology (CT)Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81739 Munich, GermanyFor the publisher: Dr. Ulrich Eberl (CC), Arthur F. Pease (CT)[email protected] (Tel. +49 89 636 33246)[email protected] (Tel.+49 89 636 48824)

Editorial Office:Dr. Ulrich Eberl (Editor-in-Chief)Sebastian Webel (Managing Director)Arthur F. Pease (Executive Editor English Edition)Hülya DagliNicole ElfleinStefan Schröder

Additional Authors in this Issue: Dr. Fenna Bleyl, Dr. Hubertus Breuer, Christian Buck, Nils Ehrenberg, Ute Kehse, Dr. Andreas Kleinschmidt, Steven E. Kuehn, Dr. Michael Lang, Florian Martini, Katrin Nikolaus, Arthur F. Pease, Dr. Jeanne Rubner, Evelyn Runge, Tim Schröder, Dr. Sylvia Trage, Andreas Wenleder, Johannes Winterhagen

Picture Editing: Judith Egelhof, Irene Kern, Doreen Thomas, Stephanie Rahn, Manfred Viglahn, Publicis Publishing, Munich

Internet:(www.siemens.com/pof): Volkmar Dimpfl, Florian MartiniAddress Database: Susan Grünbaum-Süß, Publicis ErlangenGraphic-Design / Litho: Rigobert Ratschke, Gabriele Schenk, Seufferle Mediendesign, StuttgartIllustrations: Wolfram Gothe, Munich; Arnold Metzinger, MunichGraphics: Jochen Haller, Seufferle Mediendesign, StuttgartTranslations German-English: Transform GmbH, CologneTranslations English-Portuguese: Transform GmbH, ColognePrinting: Margraf Editora e Indústria Gráfica Ltda., São Paulo

Picture Credits: Picasa (9 m.), SkyJuice Fondation (9 r., 64 l.), Load IQ (30 r.), ddp/AP (36/37, 44 t.r.), picture alliance (41 l.), getty images (41 m., 44 b.r.), FAPESP (42), Unimonte (43), ddp (52 b.), action press (53, 79), courtesy of TERI Institute (61 r.), Hochkant Film (63 l.),Frank Schultze/Siemens Stiftung (63 m., r.), Piet Willem Chevalier (64 r., 65), Swiss Contact(70), Gustavo Magnusson/Expedicionário de Saúde (76, 77 b.r., 78 l.), Ricardo Moraes/Reuters(77 m.b.), dpa (78 r.), Sankt Galler Stadtwerke (80 t.), Bertelsmann Stiftung (80 b.)

All other images: Copyright Siemens AG

Pictures of the Future and other names are protected brands of Siemens AG or affiliated companies. Other product and company names mentioned in this magazine may beregistered trademarks of their respective companies.

The editorial content of the reports in this publication does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. This magazine contains forward-looking statements, the accuracy of which Siemens is not able to guarantee in any way.

Pictures of the Future appears twice a year.Printed in Brazil. Reproduction of articles in whole or in part requires the permission of the editorial office. This also applies to storage in electronic databases and on the Internet.

© 2012 by Siemens AG. All rights reserved.Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Order number: A19100-F-P195-X-7600

ISSN 1618-5498

www.siemens.com/pof

siemens_pof_rio+20

Documents

sustainable future

sustainable world

future editorial

future special edition

lack of sustainable

brighter future technologies

sus tainable development

greater energy