PanaHome Smart City Shioashiya "Solar-Shima" Wins the Gold Award at APEC ESCI Best Practices Awards

First overseas win for PanaHome in the Smart Buildings Category

Singapore, Singapore - May 17, 2017 - Smart City Shioashiya "Solar-Shima" in Ashiya, Hyogo, a town designed and developed by PanaHome Corporation, has recently won a Gold Award in the "Smart Buildings" category of the 3rd APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) ESCI* Best Practice Awards. The award was presented in recognition of the synergy of PanaHome's superior residential building performance,Panasonic's energy generation infrastructure, storage, and energy-saving technologies for the Smart Homes (detached houses and condominiums). This is the first time a Japanese enterprise has won a Gold Award in the Smart Buildings category. The awards ceremony was held at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore Hotel on April 24, where 10 other companies and organizations won Gold or Silver Awards in five categories.

"We are honoured to receive such international recognition for our PanaHome housing development project. This development is a fine example of a high-quality sustainable smart city project that focuses on smarter living and lifestyle. We are very encouraged by winning the ESCI award and hope to expand this kind of environmental urban development to countries across Asia,'' says Kazuhiko Tanaka, Managing Director of PanaHome Asia Pacific.

*The Energy Smart Communities Initiative (ESCI) is a network launched in 2010 at a Yokohama meeting within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), with APEC nations and regions partnering on projects in five areas--, Smart Buildings, Smart Grids, Low Carbon Model Towns, Smart Jobs and Consumers, and Smart Transport.

What makes an award winning home?

Large-scale community development project, comprising of approximately 500 residential units, carried out in cooperation with the regional government (Hyogo Prefectural Government Public Enterprises Agency), which maximizes use of renewable energy while taking steps to protect the environment.
Smart houses (approximately 420 units) feature improved energy efficiency thanks to a combination of reduced power consumption, through improved building performance, solar panels and storage cells installed in each household. Other value-added features include heightened seismic resistance, minimized structural degradation, and better indoor air quality.
Smart condominiums (83 units) occupying three buildings are each equipped with fuel cells leading to the reduction of utility costs, while solar panels and large storage cells situated in common areas are capable of producing enough energy to power its annual energy consumption.

Award overview

Award name	ESCI Best Practice AwardSmart Buildings category, "Gold"
Date	April 24, 2017
Award presented for	Smart City Shioashiya "Solar-Shima"
Organizer	ESCI (Energy Smart Communities Initiative)

Overview of Smart City Shioashiya "Solar-Shima"

Launched in 2012, Smart City Shioashiya "Solar-Shima" represents the first smart city to be developed by PanaHome. The city is located in a designated area on a large expanse of reclaimed land (at 29-10 Suzukaze-cho, Ashiya, Hyogo, etc.) which boasts a panoramic view of the mountains and sea. Spearheaded by the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, this housing development project consists of approximately 500 households, and a community development which is underway with the basic concepts of "smart energy", "town design" and "town management". Slated for completion in 2023, this development will maximize the use of renewable energy sources while protecting the natural environment and to build a sustainable town.

To date, approximately 200 lots have been developed and all 83 condominiums have been sold. Currently, about 600 people live in 200 houses with an estimate of an eventual population of 1,500 occupants. Besides improving energy savings and reducing running costs with the adoption of superior energy technology for town design, we are also working on improving crime prevention performance and security. This is done through placement of roads and buildings, and townscape-planning according to design codes, so as to achieve community development with high added value.

In terms of town management, we will host activities led by community residents which promotes crime prevention, disaster preparedness, and town beautification.

Mr. Miyake (photo on the right) receiving the Gold award on behalf of PanaHome Corporation at the ESCI award ceremony

About PanaHome

Established in 1963, PanaHome Corporation traces its roots back to the passionate vision of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic Corporation, who believed in building quality houses to better people's lives. As the housing subsidiary of the Panasonic Group, PanaHome recorded consolidated net sales of 359.6 billion yen for the year ended 31 March 2017. PanaHome has built a total of about 481,434 residences in Japan over the past 50 years. It has expanded its business overseas, to Taiwan in 2010, and Malaysia in 2012. In April 2015, it established PanaHome Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. to strengthen its foothold in the housing industry across the Southeast Asia and Oceania region.

For more information on PanaHome, please visit the company's website at:
http://www.panahome.jp/english/
Connect with Panasonic Homes & Living on LinkedIn at:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/panasonichousing

Source: http://panasonicapac.mynewsdesk.com/pressreleases/panahome-smart-city-shioashiya-solar-shima-wins-the-gold-award-1971751

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