OREANDA-NEWS. Hitachi, Ltd., Daikin Industries, Ltd., Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., and Mizuho Information & Research Institute, Inc. announced that their consortium, with Hitachi as the consortium leader, has been selected to execute the "Smart Community Demonstration Project in Greater Manchester, UK". The project will be spearheaded by Japan's New Energy Development Organization ("NEDO").

The project will see the delivery of Japanese cutting edge technologies including heat pumps and ICT systems, which will contribute to the UK's transition to a low carbon society. As part of its commitment to achieve CO2 emission targets set by the EU 2009 Renewable Energy Directive, the UK is aiming to supply over 15% of its energy demand with renewable energy sources by 2020 and to support the penetration of heat pumps up to 30% by 2030.

The consortium will conduct a feasibility study, which is expected to be completed by December 2013. Based on the results of the feasibility study the project will move to the demonstration phase, which is scheduled by the end of March 2016.

Further detail of the project as well as background information about the four participating companies can be found below.