Ford Heights Chosen As Site For Smart City
Ford Heights Chosen As Site For Smart City
By Tia Carol Jones
David N. Jones founded Lumena Energy in 2020 to address sustainable energy needs. The virtual power plant helps to address energy disparities and infrastructure needs. It manufactures products and those products are implemented within municipalities that work as miniature smart grids, with the goal of making municipalities energy sovereign. Now, Jones wants to create a smart city and has chosen Ford Heights as the site for Project Kandor.
Project Kandor was designed as a pilot program to address disparities that exist in poor communities around the world, utilizing technology to fix them and create an ecological co-operative. In that co-op, creatives would come together – artists, architects, engineers and more – to develop solutions to many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, industry, innovation and infrastructure, peace justice and strong institutions.
Jones said Ford Heights represented an area that was ripe for development – not a lot of crime, a lot of potential, a lot of underused land, and a lot of underutilized talent that can be trained through workforce means to be put to work. He said Ford Heights is also very close to the Calumet River, close to highways and in a good strategic position to create a smart city.
Project Kandor would have three phases. The first phase is to address the food disparities that exist within the community. Jones has proposed the creation of a vertical farming facility that would allow farm produce hydroponically and provide jobs, as well as cater to Ford Heights and the surrounding communities by having fresh food. A data center is also being developed as part of the plan, because Jones believes that African Americans should own their own data. The diode would be a modular shipping container that would be converted into a data center. Another part of the plan is housing and there are plans to build 40 container homes, through Project Nehemiah, which is spearheaded by Lionel Pittman.
There will also be opportunities for workforce development through Lumena Energy Academy, as well as opportunities for those interested in research and development. Jones expects the project will take about 10 years and cost $100 million. He said there are academic institutions, unions and non-profit organizations that are partnering with Lumena on this project.
Lumena Energy is working with the Village of Maywood for a pilot program for its micro smart grid and is currently operating a micro smart grid in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It is also working in South Africa and Colombia.
“It’s my goal with Ford Heights to become a rose in the concrete. I want it to stand as a testament that it is possible to build a technological marvel in a place that has seen less than stellar involvement from the state level and federal government. To show that African Americans and people of color can stand together and create something impactful,” Jones said. It is Jones’ hope that once the Ford Heights pilot program is completed, people will want to replicate, build out and implement the technology in other parts of the world.
For more information about Lumena Energy, visit www.lumenaenergy.com, and Project Kandor, visit www.lumenaenergy.com/project-kandor/.
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