Ghost City to Be Built in New Mexico Just for Testing Green Tech

A replica of a small US city is to be built on 20 square miles in New Mexico for testing and evaluation of sustainable infrastructure and technologies, but featuring no permanent population. This would allow various tests to be performed in real world setting without disrupting the community.

The company behind this project, Pegasus Global Holdings, says the facility will be designed to allow new technologies to integrate into the nation's urban, suburban and rural "legacy infrastructure," and provide detailed measurable results on their impact to the economy and sectors such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, security, and agriculture.

With the support of New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, Pegasus will use the center for “real world” testing of smart grids, renewable energy integration, next-gen wireless, smart grid cyber security and terrorism vulnerability.   A replica of a typical American city of 35,000, The Centre - as it is dubbed by Pegasus -  will come complete with standard roads, buildings, power, water, telecommunications and operating systems, and will require an investment of approximately USD200 million.

“The Center will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies prior to introduction,” explained Robert H. Brumley, CEO at Pegasus Global.

However, the benefits brought by the test center extend even further, as it is also expected to create 350 new direct jobs and over 3,500 new indirect jobs through construction of the facility, supporting industry, and contractors.

This project is expected to attract many investors, and make New Mexico a leader in the commercialization of federal research. The developer still hasn’t figured out the exact location for the ghost city yet, but it says it will be either in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor or in the Las Cruces area near the Texas and Mexico borders.