New Eco-City planned for Abu Dhabi

Work continues throughout Abu Dhabi to construct even more lavish destinations for tourists from around the globe. Next on the agenda: an Arab Eco-City: the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city, powered entirely by renewable energy. Which sounds rather strange, as the Arab world’s luxurious tendencies stem solely from the oil trade.
Masdar City, a [...]

Work continues throughout Abu Dhabi to construct even more lavish destinations for tourists from around the globe. Next on the agenda: an Arab Eco-City: the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city, powered entirely by renewable energy. Which sounds rather strange, as the Arab world’s luxurious tendencies stem solely from the oil trade.

Masdar City, a $15 billion initiative in Abu Dhabi will house 1,500 businesses and 50,000 residents, and claims to be able to conserve over $2 billion of oil over 25 years. The city itself is planned to be fully up and running by 2015.

The city’s electricity will be generated by photovoltaic panels, while cooling will be provided via concentrated solar power. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant. Landscaping within the city and crops grown outside the city will be irrigated with grey water and treated waste water produced by the city’s water treatment plant.

The design principles are based around The One Planet Living program, developed by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). This program features 10 eco-principles, which Masdar, which means “the source” in Arabic, will aim to achieve. These include sustainable transport – which would mean zero carbon emissions from transport within the city; sustainable food, which will require retail outlets to meet targets for supplying organic food and sustainable or fair trade products, and sustainable materials, which will result in Forest Stewardship Council certified timber, bamboo and other eco-friendly products being used throughout the construction.

The first phase of the city’s seven-phase plan is the development of The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) — the world’s only graduate school dedicated to renewable energy, which is scheduled to open in 2009. The world’s first ‘beam down’ solar tower is also being built as part of the development and is expected to be operational by the end of 2009. Unlike solar towers which use mirrors to reflect light to the top of a tower, the ‘beam down’ design inverts the process – which is expected to be more energy efficient.