News

Urban Land has a great article regarding Smart Cities that are being constructed around the world. They put a great deal of focus on Peña Station NEXT. Below is an excerpt with a link to the full article.

About a 20-minute light-rail trip northeast from downtown Denver and nestled on the edge of Denver International Airport, a prototype for the technologically transformed urban neighborhood of the future is just starting to take shape.

Already, one of the Peña Station Next development’s buildings has been completed—the gleaming, solar-powered 112,500-square-foot (10,500 sq m) edifice that houses Panasonic Enterprise Solutions’ operations and technology center. In the streets, workers are installing the wirelessly controlled light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights that will illuminate the mixed-use complex, providing as much as a 70 percent energy savings over conventional lampposts.

But that is just the start. Panasonic and local developer L.C. Fulenwider, which are partnering on the project with the city of Denver and an assortment of other local stakeholders, envision a dense mixed-use project—including 1.5 million square feet (139,000 sq m) of office space, 500,000 square feet (47,000 sq m) of retail uses, and 2,500 residences—that will double as a proving ground for exotic technology. When the $500 million project is completed in ten to 12 years, it will be a landscape where virtually every object—from lighting to parking meters—will be connected to the internet and equipped with sensors and/or cameras to supply a continuous stream of data to the development’s managers, who also will be able to control them via cloud-based apps.

The parking area for the light-rail stop will be covered with a massive solar canopy, which will tie into a battery-equipped micro grid that will not only supply the neighborhood’s energy needs, but already make it into a net producer of energy. On-demand robotic shuttles will transport residents and workers between the rail stop and their homes and offices. A cutting-edge sensor array already developed by federal government researchers will continuously monitor environmental conditions—everything from the cloud cover to the level of particulates in the air, as well as traffic density and pedestrian count. “It’s a Fitbit for cities,” explains George Karayannis, vice president of Panasonic’s CityNow smart city division.

You can read the full article at Urban Land.