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Groundbreaking For World’s First Zero-Carbon, Zero-Waste City

February 25, 2008  |  from Construction Jobs Blog

In 2006, Abu Dhabi determined to establish itself as the world leader in renewable and sustainable energy technologies with the launch of the Masdar initiative.  A key part of this initiative was, and is, the building of the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city.

Masdar City will run on nothing but renewable energy.  No cars will be allowed, yet “at the same time the city will offer the highest quality of life possible for its residents,” says Khaled Awad, director of the Masdar project’s property development unit of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC).

Masdar City

Teams are scheduled to break ground on the project this month.  Its planners project a population of roughly 50,000 residents and 1,500 businesses, with a scheduled completion date of 2016.  But Masdar City is only one side of the multi-faceted Masdar initiative.

The Masdar Clean Technology fund, “an investment fund dedicated to advancing renewable energy and sustainable technologies,” announced in January that it had finished its first year of activities with nearly all of its $250 million already deployed, a full year ahead of schedule.

Masdar also recently entered into an agreement with BP and Rio Tinto to conduct a study on the feasibility of an industrial-scale hydrogen-fired power generation project with carbon capture and storage.  This would be the largest project of its kind in the world, providing up to 500 MW of clean power.

Masdar City

Masdar is has also made recent progress in the field of solar technology.  According to the official site, it “will soon release an invitation to build, own and operate a 100 MW Concentrating Solar Power (“CSP”) plant in Madinat Zayad, Abu Dhabi – the first of many CSP plants in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, which will feed power to existing grids. The plant will use parabolic trough technology and is expected to be operational by the end of 2010.”  Also, Masdar has been running a photovoltaic panel field test for the past two months to evaluate the performance and efficiency of different PV models in Abu Dhabi’s environment.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) faculty has been officially formed and is already conducting research.  “In partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIST is the world’s first graduate level institution focused on alternative energy and sustainability, ensuring a ready supply of highly skilled graduates to meet the growing demand within the clean technology and sustainable energy sectors.”

Check out the popular Masdar video and the official website.

Filed: Green-Construction