High-tech ghost town being constructed in New Mexico
Pegasus Global Holdings has plans to build a 20-square mile city in New Mexico near the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor or Las Cruces, but residents of the state won’t be allowed to move there. Given the ominous name ‘The Center’, the city will potentially be able to house up to 35,000 people and will operate as if people are actually living there. The purpose of this project is to create a testing bed for governments, private corporations and other entities to test new forms of technology. Possible tech includes smart-grid cyber security systems, advanced Wi-Fi networks, alternate renewable energy options and smarter traffic networks. The group ideally wants organizations to test new forms of green technology in the quiet metropolis.
The company have been working on preliminary plans for ‘The Center’ on the past 18 months and is currently speaking with state officials on the next steps. The construction and continual management of the ghost town may employ up to 4,000 workers, some of which would stay on the outskirts of ‘The Center’. An example of a real-world application for the town includes allowing a company heavily invested in solar energy get a better understanding of how to distribute power between homes that use different settings on the thermostat. Testing this process on a large scale is likely to offer more information than simply attempting computer simulations within a lab.
After the city is completed, Pegasus plans to rent the city to large organizations for testing various projects. They also plan on selling energy created within the smart grid to local businesses on the outskirts of the town. In addition to ‘The Center’, Pegasus has plans to build a commercial space launch facility in New Mexico. The facility will likely be close to Spaceport America, another commerical space launching pad that’s he future home for Virgin Galactic.
