Archinect - News 2024-12-25T11:45:25-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/138417575/werner-sobek-believes-we-could-live-in-entirely-renewable-energy-powered-cities-by-2020 Werner Sobek believes we could live in entirely renewable-energy-powered cities by 2020 Julia Ingalls 2015-10-07T15:02:00-04:00 >2015-10-23T21:03:35-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/tk/tk3dv4l9ub6s3c8w.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>After building 2014's&nbsp;Aktivhaus B10, a house that generates twice as much energy as it uses for its own needs via renewable sources, architect <a href="http://archinect.com/firms/cover/1559/werner-sobek" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Werner Sobek</a> believes that we have all the technology we need to live in entirely emissions-free cities in only five years. He also understands that to make this shift, he will need the full support of the <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/125760916/2015-holcim-awards-grand-prizes-given-to-colombia-sri-lanka-and-u-s-based-projects" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">construction</a> and <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/136883678/apple-and-google-are-poised-to-shake-up-the-auto-industry" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">automotive industries</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/01/01hg2vcpleu1e7ic.jpg"></p><p>&ldquo;The automotive industry is driving forward the creation of ever more powerful, longer-lasting <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/94500500/tesla-announces-plans-to-build-5-billion-battery-gigafactory" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">batteries</a>," Sobek said. "At the same time, the construction industry is working on such solutions as a retrofittable building automation system that can noticeably reduce the energy consumption of existing buildings in a very short amount of time.&rdquo;</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/io/iomuxp1gs4yc8suh.jpg"></p><p>Sobek believes that <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/124996166/vancouver-is-the-latest-city-to-announce-100-green-energy-goals" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the efficient city model</a> could be brought into being via a "Sisterhood Principle" of data sharing, whereby multiple houses, even city districts, exchange information about what energy they are using, storing, and generating, and correspondingly ...</p>