Smart Cities Alliance Projects

The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance’s city members already have countless Smart Cities-related projects underway, with nearly 100 new projects identified as opportunities for collaboration. Each project showcases the forward-thinking nature of the public sector leaders involved and the innovative private sector partners that are helping to bring these projects from vision to reality.

ACTIONABLE INNOVATION

Actionable Innovation is our tested, five-phase approach to smart cities investments. Through this model, we consider the need, viability and sustainability of potential projects. We also consider outcomes and the ability of a project to solve challenges regionally. As a result, we deploy projects that have a significantly higher chance of growing beyond the pilot.

Partner: Facilitate a Collaborative Partnership by aligning the challenges, capacity and priorities of a Government Partner with the data and technology capabilities of a Business Partner.
Explore: Bring Collaborative Partners together to explore creative, outcome-driven solutions to regional challenges.
Evaluate: Evaluate the viability, affordability and sustainability of potential solutions and select the best option.
Implement: Launch projects that have a high chance of success in the test phase and ability to scale regionally and across the state.
Scale: Expand projects that were successful in a pilot to other localities and regions across the state.

This page only highlights examples of the many projects we’re working to start, replicate, and scale. Check back here regularly to see the latest projects from our members and find opportunities to get engaged.

With funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, members of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance have access to this world-class resource to jointly develop new solutions to solve the most complex problems.

5G Smart Futures Lab

The University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) in partnership with Colorado Smart Cities Alliance and Innosphere Ventures, were awarded a $2 million dollar grant to launch a smart cities incubator and accelerator program, which will support workforce development in critical tech industries and create more than 200 jobs.

The grant is part of a larger statewide initiative being led by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who announced that the Economic Development Administration (EDA) is committed to investing $3.1 million in Colorado through grants to support the growth of high-tech business and cybersecurity workforce development.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)

Deployment

Boulder, Colorado

Thanks to the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, members the City of Boulder and Fermata Energy have deployed one of the nation’s first vehicle-to-building fast chargers in the real world. As a critical phase to enable true vehicle-to-grid (V2G) smart grid applications, where our vehicles can provide resilience, lower energy costs, and revolutionize our energy system, the technology is operating in the real world. In eleven months of successful usage, Boulder saved an average of almost $270 per month – or, approximately equal to the monthly payment for many popular EVs.

This represents the type of public-private partnership and technology innovation needed to tackle problems like climate change, resilience, and affordable housing just to name a few.

Research

The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance partnered with researchers at the University of Colorado Denver to explore key research questions surrounding the future of V2X EV charging, including the quantitative energy impacts and savings potential, as well as the qualitative and social factors impacting people’s willingness to accept V2X charging. One outcome has been a capstone project by Hilary Haskell for the School of Public Affairs, Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, which surveyed the willingness to opt in to bidirectional charging programs in support of V2G integration. The resulting assessment found that bidirectional charging programs may benefit from hourly charging compensation rates, in addition to many other findings outlined in the capstone report.

By leveraging research and findings from this research, we can begin to better understand the feasibility of utilizing V2X charging to improve sustainability and resiliency in our urban environments and beyond.

Mobility Evolution Initiative

New technology and partnership models are revolutionizing the way people and goods move around influenced by major trends like electrification, connectivity, automation, and new service models. These technologies are being tested all over the world, often in silos, and entire industries are looking for opportunities to scale what works to begin solving the complex issues facing our transportation system.

The Mobility Evolution Initiative aims to identify the technologies and partnerships ready for primetime by planning larger deployments across Denver South’s technology-centered corridor, which is anchored by light rail and plagued by issues surrounding the first and last mile.

Contributors—including the technical staff of Denver South’s member jurisdictions, the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, locally-based engineering firm AECOM, and a team of researchers from the University of Denver—produced the now publicly available Mobility Evolution Initiative StoryMap.

This unique visualization is a living document that summarizes the overall process, methodology, existing conditions, toolbox, and data analysis that underpins the region’s collective mobility planning process. It provides the data to make informed decisions about the future of mobility throughout the region, and it provides the tools to evaluate innovative technologies, projects, and partnerships that can benefit commuters and residents alike.

Across three cities, two counties, several metro districts, and multiple solutions providers, the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is looking to evolve how transportation technology is deployed, starting right in our backyard.

Interactive StoryMap

Denver’s “Love My Air” Program

As one of the fastest-growing U.S. cities, Denver experiences significant construction and traffic congestion, worsening our air quality (AQ)—the 14th-worst among major US cities. Only 53% of residents realize the impacts of poor AQ, including that children are more susceptible to its effects, such as decreased lung function and missed days of school. While multiple factors influence exposure to air pollution, schools are an ideal intervention point for sensor deployment, education and empowerment.

The Love My Air program, in partnership with Denver Public Schools (DPS), is creating a citywide air quality (AQ) monitoring network to provide real-time AQ data—utilizing low-cost cutting-edge air pollution sensor technology, redeveloped with solar, battery storage and data connectivity to make it useful for widescale deployment and replicable in any municipality. The Love My Air program is also a Denver Smart City project.

AvCo, Nation’s Largest Fleet of Autonomous Shuttles

Autonomous Vehicles Colorado (AvCo), is a series of micro transit services that use driverless, electric shuttles to connect people with key destinations in Colorado. The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is the nonprofit at the center of the project.

Service in the first of three locations launched in August 2021 at Colorado School of Mines in Golden. The autonomous shuttle buses connected Mines students, faculty, staff and the general public with key destinations in the city and around campus that lacked convenient mobility options. The shuttles safely navigated regular traffic using advanced sensors and technology, signaling a major step forward for the industry.

AvCo is defining our mobility future. The project’s impact will be immediate and longterm, offering benefits such as improved road safety, reduced carbon emissions, and enhanced access for more people.

Visit the AvCo website for more information. The project has received extensive media coverage from major publications and broadcast networks including The Hill, Colorado Public Radio, Denver Post and many more.

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