News

Phil Goldstein at StateTech Magazine has a great article regarding the use of “Innovation Zones” in cities to drive Smart City technology and development. The trend is happening all across the country and State Tech looks at Peña Station NEXT in the article.

Below is a brief exerpt from the article with links.

What are innovation zones?

Innovation zones are areas within cities that municipalities use as proving grounds for smart city technology deployments, small areas to test everything from smart streetlights to IP-connected surveillance cameras and environmental sensors. Once the technologies are proven at a small scale, cities can then make a case to expand them on a wider basis. Other cities, including Denver, Las Vegas and Kansas City, Mo., have undertaken similar efforts in recent years.

Spotlight on Peña Station NEXT

In Denver, about a 20-minute light-rail trip northeast from downtown and sitting on the edge of Denver International Airport, the city is developing a mixed-used area known as Peña Station Next, with hotels, commercial and residential development.

The city envisions that the area will include 1.5 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail space and 2,500 residences, while also serving as a test bed for smart city technology. One of the development’s buildings has been completed: the gleaming, solar-powered, 112,500-square-foot edifice that houses Panasonic Enterprise Solutions’ operations and technology center.

In the streets, workers are installing wirelessly controlled LED streetlights, which the complex’s backers say in a press release will deliver 70 percent energy savings over conventional lampposts.

Read the entire article on State Tech.