Panasonic has formed a smart city partnership with Denver, Colorado, and a number of local private entities that aims to improve energy efficiency, water management and other public services.
Panasonic says the partnership with use the company’s CityNOW smart city technology to make Denver a more sustainable city.
The application of smart technologies to the city’s infrastructure, including in and around Denver International Airport, will provide more real-time information on city services, the company says. It will also transform urban infrastructure like street lighting and energy systems to sense and respond to the presence of people and deliver services as needed.
As part of the partnership, Xcel Energy has presented a project to build a microgrid with contributions from Panasonic and Denver International Airport that will demonstrate the use of solar photovoltaic and lithium ion storage batteries working together. The microgrid, made up of a 1.3MW AC solar carport system and a 1MW/2MWh battery storage system, if approved, will be “the most comprehensive project of this type in Colorado history and the first with actual customer participation in a real-world environment,” according to Alice K. Jackson, regional vice president for rates and regulatory affairs at Xcel Energy.
Panasonic is also working with Aviation Station North Metropolitan District No. 1, developerStat. Fulenwider, and Denver International Airport to pilot a system of “smart” LED Street lighting at the Peña Station NEXT development district near the Panasonic Enterprise Solutions hub that is now under construction. The system is designed to save energy, optimize usage and bring new video analytics technology to streets that can support parking management, traffic analysis, security, and other potential future services.
A White House smart city initiative, formed last fall with founding partners Bank of America, General Electric, Duke Energy, Autodesk, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, among other firms, will invest more than $160 million in federal research and leverage more than 25 new technology collaborations to help local communities.
The smart cities initiative, called Envision America, aims to tackle challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services.