By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.07.2011 at 10:59 am 12 Comments

Ghost Town Ybidau via Flickr

In the old West, ghost towns often formed from catastrophe, when natural or economic disasters led occupants to abandon their homes and buildings in search of better options. But in the new West, one purposefully-built ghost town will a center of opportunity.

New Mexico will soon be home to a 20-square-mile mock city, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings. Structures will be erected to model various styles, old and new, to make it more realistic. Its Stephen King-esque name, The Center, seems fitting of a city that will be home to no one.

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Technology, Rebecca Boyle, cities, ghost, green cities, los alamos, New Mexico, renewable energy, sandia national laboratory
The $200 million city will be used to test new renewable energy infrastructure, smart grids, traffic systems, wireless networks and more, according to Washington, D.C.-based tech firm Pegasus Global Holdings. The company announced plans Tuesday to build the ghost town on state-owned land somewhere in New Mexico, according to the Associated Press. It would be located either in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor or near Las Cruces, near the borders with Mexico and Texas.

The project, which the company says will be the first of its kind in the U.S., will let research institutions and private companies test new technologies in a real-world setting. Although there will be no human occupants, buildings could be tested just as they would if people were using them — different thermostat settings among neighbors would impact how a smart grid modulates energy, for instance. This would be more useful than simply using computer simulations in a lab.

The Center’s presence in New Mexico ensures it will be close (at least fairly close, it's the West) to the state’s lineup of federal labs and research centers, from Los Alamos to Sandia to White Sands Missile Range.

The Center would make money by charging researchers to use the facilities, according to CEO Bob Brumley. It would also sublease some of its state land for the development of a non-ghost town at its perimeter, where living humans visiting The Center could come to stay and eat.

New Mexico state leaders have been working with Pegasus for 18 months, the AP reported. Brumley is in the process of selecting a site for the ghost town, but it will be a few months before everything is final.

[Washington Post]

12 Comments

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Midoman
09/07/11 at 11:52 am

I don't think we can simulate individual usage patterns. I mean an individual can wake up at 3 am fire up the oven take a shower etc.. there SHOULD be human occupants for the sake of true unpredictability

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Igot1forya
09/07/11 at 11:56 am

Such an empty city already exists. Its name is Detroit.

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vt007
09/07/11 at 12:56 pm

hell yeah,
evrybody will see that the new tech is awesome, and they will just start by moving in (or around).
Then in the future itll be a New high-tech capital city...

PS: they will move in, (the state have to make profit somehow... (and if its popular, you see how it goes in busness ^^)

bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^

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Onihikage
09/07/11 at 1:21 pm

Hope this works better for NM than it did for China: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339536/Ghost-towns-China-Satellite-images-cities-lying-completely-deserted.html

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topstop
09/07/11 at 2:11 pm

What a waste of money and resourses. Why not build it where housing is needed then you would get rent and a realistic result.

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I4Future
09/07/11 at 5:12 pm

wow That is really a huge waste of money. Nothing learned from this could not as easily be learned by taking a small town and just converting it.

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beefymclovin
09/07/11 at 5:52 pm

this is really a good investment....if they do it properly. test the new tech then weed out the ones that wont work well enough. could find some tweaks here n there to make the efficiency higher that wouldnt be seen in a strictly lab setting. this could be a real life setting of syfys "eureka"

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jefro
09/07/11 at 9:14 pm

There is nothing green about this idea. It is a total waste of time and money and energy.

Any tests could be done on real towns with real time results.

I am sure some taxpayer is footing the bill for this fud.

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abhinavgupta321
09/08/11 at 3:24 am

Testing is nessesary before implementation in big cities. If new york, london, paris, moscow, beijing and sydney (only 5 cities where all this is much needed) try this, i say that would cost quiet a bit more than in a 20sq mile city. Maybe we can learn from mistakes and try reinvent/innovate with these tech for use in bigger cities because we do not want systems to crash in these cities just because 'we did not test'.

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Oakspar77777
09/08/11 at 3:07 pm

Would you want a new automated driving system tested in your neighborhood? The point of "no people" is the cars in the living room, the "energy grid" that unplugs the dishwashers and grandma, or the street lights that are all stuck on green.

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B.V.
09/09/11 at 4:14 pm

It sounds wasteful, but the liability of failing/overloading/exploding power systems is enough to justify the expense of running an empty town.

Unless you'd like to volunteer as a charred corpse for a malfunctioning smart grid that routed a million volts to your toaster.

---

"Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill.
Tell them firmly:
I am not paid to listen to this drivel.
You are a terminal boob." - William S. Burroughs

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caineunholy
09/18/11 at 8:51 am

What a wast!
I will live in this town.
just feed me and give me a home!
so many homeless people.
and people who need jobs.
So sad...



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