A Washington, DC-based consultancy to the energy and public-infrastructure industries plans to build a 20-square-mile replica of a small US city explicitly to test emerging technologies such as intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks, and smart-grid cybersecurity systems. Pegasus Global Holdings is developing the $200 million project, which would create an unpopulated, US city with an infrastructure like that found in a town of 35,000 people. The site would mimic real-world infrastructure, enabling researchers to work with concepts that can’t be easily tested in a laboratory. The project would make money by charging users’ operation and maintenance fees and by as well as subleasing some land for development. Pegasus Global Holdings is still selecting the site, which reportedly will be on state-owned land either in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area or near Las Cruces. The project will reportedly initially employ about 350 people. (SlashDot)(The Washington Post)(Popular Science)
