At the end of 2023, Megawatt Cloud, which focuses on the research and development of virtual power plants, completed a Series A financing. MW Cloud serves customers on the power load side such as industrial parks, urban buildings, and community aggregation, providing them with full-chain solutions for the design, construction, and operation of virtual power plants. This round of financing is invested by Integrated Smart Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and Kunlun Capital, which means that the "national team" has injected virtual power plant technology driven by digital technology platforms for the first time, and also reflects the market's attention to sustainable and innovative technologies in the field of real estate technology (PropTech).
The above-mentioned investment events are a slice of the development of the real estate technology field in 2023, and the sustainable and innovative technologies represented by virtual power plants and applied to the commercial real estate field are just one of the forces in the technology wave. As a builder and cultivator of the real estate technology ecosystem, Jones Lang LaSalle continues to track relevant technology and investment trends, and has sorted out the following observations, believing that technology and innovation will eventually lead the industry to the light.
Item 1
Digital and intelligent energy management is in the spotlight: an effective means to achieve near-zero emissions and create resilient buildings
At the global level, the "Building Breakthrough" initiative, first launched at COP27, won more supporters and participants at the recently concluded COP28: more than 20 countries pledged to set near-zero emissions and resilience targets for buildings, while taking concrete actions to implement them, jointly stating that "near-zero emissions and resilient buildings will become the new normal by 2030". To achieve the goal of near-zero emissions and resilience in buildings, the low-carbon transformation of building energy is an important starting point.
In China, China Southern Power Grid expects that by 2060, renewable energy will account for more than 60% of power generation, of which the level of electrification of terminal energy in the building sector will increase to about 75%. In the context of the increasing installed capacity of new energy, it is particularly important to actively deploy digital and intelligent energy management systems at the power consumption end of buildings.
- For example, the "PV, Storage, Direct and Flexible" technology can use a flexible power management system to realize the independent regulation and optimization of building electricity consumption;
- The virtual power plant helps to aggregate distributed energy resources, which can control and distribute electricity consumption, which is conducive to the direct consumption of wind power and photovoltaics.
- And through the use of the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and other technical means, to achieve real-time monitoring and control of building electrical equipment, optimize the utilization and distribution of energy, and reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Item 2
Construction robots show potential: make construction, operation and maintenance more efficient and safer
With the adjustment and upgrading of the industry, the construction industry has reached a transition period from large-scale development to high-quality use, and the introduction of robots into the whole life cycle of the traditional construction industry, to the trend of automation and machine-assisted labor, may be the solution to the problem of industrial upgrading. At the same time, the popularity of construction robots will also improve the user experience to meet the needs of "human-oriented" and "smart space" in the future of smart buildings.
The construction link is currently the most demanded field for construction robots, and it is also the most widely used field for construction robots. With the help of precise sensor and algorithm control, higher construction accuracy and quality can be achieved than traditional workers, and construction robots can work continuously without energy and time constraints, thus improving construction efficiency.
In the construction operation and maintenance stage, the main demand for robots is the early construction operation and maintenance and the later property operation and maintenance two aspects: the early construction operation and maintenance, the whole process of participation and management of construction projects will be realized, such as the Internet of Things technology will be combined with the traditional operation and maintenance management to achieve equipment monitoring and task control;
埃欧珞（2023年加入城越UrbanLab）
Curtain wall robot cleaning real picture
At present, many innovative technologies are helping the construction industry to embrace change, and there have been successful cases of proof of concept, such as plastering robots, indoor measurement robots, building indoor cleaning, and outdoor high-altitude curtain wall cleaning, but the development of the mainland construction robot industry is still in the early stage, and it is still unable to fully meet the diverse needs of various buildings in terms of product functions and applicable scenarios, and there is still a way to go before large-scale application.
Item 3
Office intelligence into a boom: employees have needs, and enterprises also have returns
As China enters the second half of urbanization, the demand for space services is constantly updated, and in the context of the increasing popularity of hybrid work, space users, "migrant workers", have put forward higher standards and requirements for the hardware equipment of office space.
For businesses, the integration of smart building technologies can also help improve ROI. Jones Lang LaSalle's business line focused on proptech – Jones Lang LaSalle's research shows that companies can expect to see a three-fold return on how much they invest in smart building technology over five years.
Based on the concept of "people-oriented", the trend of "space as a service" and the evolution of the demand of "social interaction while working", solutions around the new normal such as flexible office and building intelligence have been continuously improved: for example, the real-time reservation of workstations and meeting rooms needs to be linked to cost calculation; visitor management needs to be connected to WIFI, parking, and front desk, and real non-inductive access is achieved by opening up access control permissions, financial systems, and enterprise administration; meeting rooms need to be connected to hardware through intelligent Internet of Things. Meeting booking software and work order system to achieve increased ventilation before the meeting, silent operation during the meeting, and automatic dispatch and cleaning after the meeting......
The above scenarios involve smart office and employee experience, device management, and energy consumption management, which are not independent units, but will be organically connected on an integrated platform to meet the short-term needs and long-term vision of enterprises.
In order to bring space users one step closer to the "future", Jones Lang LaSalle has proposed a smart tenant solution: through global smart space products, for tenants and owners concerned about facilities, space and energy consumption management, etc., with the Internet of Things, data interfaces, algorithms and BI data dashboards and other technical support, efficient execution and management, improve the efficiency of space resource utilization.
With the reduction of the cost of the Internet of Things, the rapid development of artificial intelligence, and the increasing penetration of cloud storage, smart space-related solutions will be further popularized. The new smart solution will use a unified platform, cooperate with the industry insights accumulated by Jones Lang LaSalle, cooperate with the services in the operation stage, and realize real efficiency empowerment for the space through the technology/products of rich ecological partners.
epilogue
The power of technological innovation has been continuing and driving the development of the real estate industry, and China has become one of the most important PropTech markets in the world. Despite the challenges of the economic environment, more and more companies are becoming aware of the unique competitiveness and significant value that PropTech can bring to future development. As the impact of technology expands, JLL looks forward to working with industry partners to build a more sustainable PropTech ecosystem in 2024.
About Jones Lang LaSalle:
As an advocate and pioneer in the proptech field, JLL established JLL Technologies, a proptech-focused business line in 2019, led by experienced developers, entrepreneurs, technologists from Silicon Valley and investors from high-growth technology companies, and commercial real estate experts, committed to providing comprehensive technology solutions for the commercial real estate ecosystem and building a win-win PropTech ecosystem in China.
About Jotsu
Initiated by Jones Lang LaSalle and its partners, UrbanLab is the first proptech enterprise alliance in China, and since its establishment in 2019, UrbanLab has focused on connecting the upstream and downstream of the industry to jointly build a proptech super ecosystem.
In 2023, starting from the original intention of "sustainability and integration", UrbanLab will take sustainable future cities as its development goals, focusing on the three themes of sustainable architecture, sustainable space, and sustainable people, and build the future together in integration and co-creation.