Colonial achieves a new level of energy efficiency with Future Motors
Buildings consume more than 40% of the final energy used in Europe, mainly through the motors they contain. This is why the real estate sector cannot remain oblivious to the search for energy efficiency that is emerging here and there as a response to environmental and climate issues. In fact, and based on our values and commitment to sustainability, the real estate sector must be the protagonist of this change. And with technology as an ally. This is our vision. The vision that has driven a collaboration with Future Motors, a company specialized in the design and development of intelligent digital engines, to reduce electricity consumption in buildings and along with it carbon dioxide emissions, to take a step from Real Estate to Smart Estate.
A motor based on artificial intelligence and Big Data
Current electric motors that drive activity in buildings are not as efficient as they should be. In the words of Ignacio Osorio, CEO of Future Motors Iberia, "approximately 30% of the energy of these motors is wasted". Hence, the most important objective of the project was the inclusion of digital motors capable of adapting their performance to the needs of each building at any given time. Motors that do not waste resources. Engines that would reduce the impact on the planet. To do this, Osorio himself explains in an interview in El Español, Future Motors experts applied three differential ingredients to the engines: "digitalization, artificial intelligence and Big Data tools". The engines are able of receiving inputs and acting accordingly.
Results: 36% reduction in energy consumption
Our commitment to energy efficiency, set out in Colonial's Sustainability Decalogue, has led us to incorporate structural sustainability solutions in the newest buildings in our portfolio. However, as José Alfonso Martínez, Colonial's Technical and Projects Director, explains, "we have very new buildings but also older ones, and in this second case we saw that these motors could be a perfect fit". And they did. The replacement of the conventional motors of the air handling unit with Future Motors motors in the Barcelona office building Diagonal 682 and in the Madrid office building Miguel Ángel 11 has resulted in an average energy saving of 36%, thus opening the way to a decisive change in the real estate sector.
But energy savings do not come alone. It brings with it another very important side benefit: between the two buildings, the emission of up to 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide could be avoided. Another of the sustainability aspirations of the Decalogue, the reduction of the carbon footprint, which comes hand in hand with commitment and technological advances, and which Colonial will continue to pursue through more collaborations with Future Motors. As Martínez acknowledged, "in Recoletos 37 with a project already installed, and we also already have a project to replace 14 motors in López de Hoyos, in Francisca Delgado..., it is a solid commitment that we are making. A commitment that has earned both companies recognition from the Association of Energy Efficiency Companies.
From Real Estate to Smart Estate: award for efficient building management
The Association of Energy Efficiency Companies (A3E) celebrates every year the Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Awards, in which it recognizes the most influential efficiency and decarbonization business projects. And in its 9th edition, held at the end of 2022, it awarded the initiative developed by Colonial in collaboration with Future Motors. One more example of the positive impact that the replacement of conventional engines by digital engines is having on society. Proof that, as Osorio points out, "it is possible to improve energy consumption in buildings and contribute to the decarbonization of cities". All that is required is the will, joint work and technological investment, requirements that we at Colonial have been meeting for years. And we will continue to do so. This is only the beginning.
