Progress Underway For Denver's Smart City, Pena Station

Denver and partner Panasonic are already digging in to solutions for the Pena Station smart city project. This project offers housing leaders great perspective on how a unique supplier-city relationship will be driving technology forward. Plus, where that technology is headed.

...At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic, a partner in Denver’s smart city project, gave attendees a closer look at what may come. Some technologies are still in development but others, like the bus shelter, will be “much more robust,” said George Karayannis, vice president of CityNow, Panasonic’s smart-city arm.

Located south of Denver International Airport, the futuristic neighborhood began getting smart LED street lights last month. A parking area covered with solar panels plus a storage microgrid is almost done. And the building on the site, the Technology and Operations Center division of Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Co., is open for business.

Karayannis said the plan is to add a blanket of Wi-Fi coverage by spring, followed by smart parking and the smart bus stop in summer. The first EasyMile EZ10 autonomous shuttles are expected to arrive next month.

Panasonic chose Denver for its smart city in order to create a smart city lab and test different technologies.