- ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to be held in South Korea for the first time
- Smart buildings helping to improve efficiency and meet sustainability targets
- Shift in robotics technology and the way it is used highlighted
- Latest video in ABB’s series for FIA Girls on Track released
This weekend the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship heads to Seoul, South Korea, for the final two races in Season 8 and the series’ 100th race on Sunday, marking an important milestone for the sport.
The 22-turn, 2.618 km track weaves its way around the Jamsil Olympic Stadium and sports complex which was home to the 1988 Summer Olympics. It’s the Championship’s first visit to South Korea and it’s expected to be an action-packed weekend with Seoul Festa also taking place from August, 10 – 14. The five-day event features a K-pop concert, shopping event and the E-Prix itself.
In conjunction with ABB Formula E’s first visit to Seoul, ABB Korea has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korean Association for Green Campus Initiative (‘KAGCI‘). Under this agreement, ABB Korea will help to accelerate the transformation from traditional buildings to energy-efficient buildings in universities across the country. This will be done by introducing ICT systems to monitor and control air conditioning, lighting and energy use to improve efficiency. The first universities to benefit will be Korea University in Seoul and Hanshin University in Osan, Kyunggi province.
Theodor Swedjemark, ABB’s Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer, said: “The signing of this MoU is the latest of our climate initiatives within the ABB Formula E series, which we set up to further utilize the high-profile platform of the series to push the boundaries of technology, improve equality and champion change. We are pleased to be able to announce such an initiative on the same weekend that we celebrate the Championship’s 100th race competing on streets around the world to help drive sustainable progress.”
This implementation of smart building technology is something ABB has already facilitated in a range of projects throughout South Korea, for example, in Jeju Shinhwa World, a resort located in the south-western part of Jeju Island. ABB is supplying ABB KNX control systems for 2,000 hotel rooms at the resort, which spans a land area of approximately 2.5 million square meters and accommodates 30,000 people per day. ABB’s proven KNX technology is accepted as the world’s first open standard for the control of all types of intelligent buildings – industrial, commercial or residential. The full package of building control systems will be installed across the hotel to control elements such as the temperature and lighting, delivering both energy and cost savings.
June-Ho Choi, Country Managing Director, ABB Korea, said: “In addition to using technology to help save energy, ABB Korea is also supporting the country in ensuring the energy that is used is increasingly renewable. South Korea is committed to advancing the energy transition of the world’s tenth biggest economy by increasing the share of renewable electricity to 20 percent by 2030 and to 30-35 percent by 2040, and at ABB we have the technology to really help drive this change.”
ABB supported Doosan Enerbility, which was selected as supervision company for the development of an 8MW high-capacity offshore wind turbine, led by the Korea Energy Technology Institute as a national project and backed by the South Korean government. The project took about four years with joint participation from a number of industries, schools, and institutions in Korea. As a development partner, ABB has provided electromagnetic, thermal, and mechanical design in addition to supply the generator stator and rotor active parts for the prototype.
Another area in which the country is pushing technology boundaries is within robotics. South Korea is the most robotized country in the world, with 932 industrial robots for every 10,000 workers – a figure which has increased by 10 percent every year since 2015. Traditionally they are used mainly in manufacturing, especially in the automotive sector, where thousands of ABB robots are in use in applications such as press, foundry and painting process automation. However, this is changing, with robots now used in a wide range of applications and industries. A new video from ABB looks at the use of collaborative robots in the service, telecommunication and cosmetics industries.
Ahead of the Seoul E-Prix, ABB has released a new video in its series as part of the company’s partnership with FIA Girls on Track. It features Daniela Luzanin, Head of the ABB Formula E partnership, who discusses how seeing women in senior roles can inspire the next generation and the level of help and support available to them.
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