Abu Dhabi 365

Masdar City/Initiative

Masdar City is being built in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is located 17 kilometers from the Abu Dhabi city. The Masdar city is among the zero carbon, zero waste, and well planned cities in the world and is designed by a British architectural firm, named Foster + Partners. Other contributors in the city project include General Electric, Royal Dutch Shell, Fiat, Total S.A. Mitsui, British Petroleum, Mitsubishi, and Rolls Royce.

A Global Operative Platform

The Masdar city is designed in order to provide a global platform to the environmental issues related to mankind, which include energy security, climate change, and other eco friendly problems. The city is planned to work totally on solar energy, zero waste ecology, zero carbon, and other renewable energy sources. The headquarters of the Masdar city are being under the design of Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture.

Size and Design of the City

The city is estimated to cover six square kilometers on a site of 6.4 square kilometers. The project of Masdar city is under the leadership of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC). The projected population of the city is estimated to be around 50,000 people. There will also be set up of commercial and manufacturing units that are eco friendly. The number of such units may extend to 1,500 in number. There will be no automobiles in the city. Podcar, personal rapid transit system and public mass transit has been proposed as the means of transportation. The residents will be using the travel pods that will be running on magnetic tracks.

Projects Undertaken in Masdar City

The Masdar city aims at providing world-class education system to its residents. There will be a Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, laboratories, and research facilities for the students and researchers. The city is planned in such a way to provide clean tech companies, light producing services to international firms that will invest, develop, and commercialize the technologies needed to advance energy sources in the city.

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

Masdar city proposes to set up a high-level education system in the region. This includes setting up of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST). This university will offer graduate level education that will be research oriented in fields like energy sources, sustainability, and environment. The first president of MIST is Dr. Russel Jones. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) assists the university. MIT is located in the Massachusetts state in United States of America. It consists of many colleges that propose scientific and technological research.

The contribution of MIT is to provide qualitative and informative programs to MIST and to graduate its students under the MIT standard of education. The MIST was established in 2007 and this university will be accepting the application for its first semester that will be started by 2009. A batch of 100 students will be admitted for the first year. The plan is to increase the number of students every year with the maximum limit of 800 students. The campus of the university is also designed by Foster + Partners. The designing of the campus is done in such a way to provide natural lighting and cooling effect in the college premises. There is also an extensive use of traditional architectural elements.

The various programs offered at the university includes-

• Information Technology
• Mechanical Engineering
• Material Science and Engineering
• Water and Environment
• Engineering Systems and Management

The well-deserved and qualified students from all over the world are offered scholarships and hostel facilities with stipend, if they get admission in any of the programs mentioned above.

Means of Power Supply

There are many projects in Masdar city that aims at making the city highly planned, eco-friendly, and scientifically advanced. There will be traditional Gulf architecture that will aim at low energy buildings. There are many renewable power sources that aim at providing regular supply to these construction sites. One of the major projects is to provide 40 to 60 megawatt solar power plant, which is built by the German firm Conergy. Another source includes wind farms that can produce power up to 20 megawatts. Photovoltaic modules will also be allocated on the rooftops of the sites for supplying 130 megawatts solar energy. There will also be a geothermal plant installed in the city. The main aim of the Masdar city is to host the largest hydrogen power plant in the world.

Water Management Sources

The water management is also planned to be eco friendly and energy saver. There is a plan to use a solar powered desalination plant to meet up the water needs of the people of Masdar city. This desalination plant aims at eliminating salt and other minerals from the water. Further planning also involves recycling about 80% of the used water. This grey water or recycled water will be used for crop irrigation and other agricultural purposes. The Abu Dhabi government has also announced a $15 billion five-year initiative that will aim at developing clean energy technology.

Recycled Waste

The Masdar city is planning to make the city waste free. In order to attain zero waste, the biological waste will be used for producing nutrient and minerals rich soil and fertilizers. The process of waste incineration can also be applied to the waste. Through this process, the waste is converted into ashes, flue gases, heat, and particulates. These all can be used in the production of electric power. This process is among the technologies of waste-to –energy (WtC). The waste like plastics, glass and metals gathered through various industries will also be recycled and used for many other purposes.

Joint Venture with Spanish Engineering Group

MASDAR, the alternative energy company of Abu Dhabi has announced a joint venture with a Spanish engineering group called Sener Grupo De Ingenieria S.A. The project is named as Torresol Energy. Sener President and CEO, Jorge Sendagorta and MASDAR CEO, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber announced the launch of this project. The SENER group will own 60% shares and the MASDAR Company will own the 40% shares of the Torresol Energy project.

The joint venture aims at designing, building, and operating Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants in the Sunbelt regions of the world. This joint venture promotes the adoption of CSP plants in order to make the regions environmental friendly and also to generate power from solar energy.

One of the projects of this joint venture includes setting up of three solar plants in Spain. The value of this project will be around 800 million pounds. Independently of Torresol Energy, the MASDAR is also planning a CSP plant and a flagship plant named ‘Shams 1’ in the Masdar city.

The projects of Torresol Energy will be aiming at making CSP plant a competitive and reliable technology source. The joint venture also wants to attain a leading position in the sector of CSP that may help in the protection of environment and energy sources. SENER and MASDAR have joined hands in order to be the number one global company that works together to generate maximum and reliable power from different solar energy sources. These both claim that the Torresol Energy project will revolutionize the various ways of drawing energy from the sun.

Support and Criticism from the Outer World

The aim of the project of Masdar city is to make the region clean, waste free, and eco friendly. The reactions from the outer world include support as well as criticism from many international institutions. One of the supporters of this project includes World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). WWF also works for the conservation, research, and restoration of the environment. This institution supports the environmental friendly techniques adopted by the Masdar city. The supporters of ‘Bioregionalism’ also welcome the Masdar city project. This movement works in the favor of improving the political, cultural, and environmental issues prevailing in the society. WWF and Bioregionalism have named the city as an official ‘One Planet Living Community’.

One of the initial and major achievements of the Masdar city project includes as named the ‘Cleantech Leader of the Year’ at the Cleantech Awards held in San Francisco, California in the United States of America. Since its launch in 2006, the Masdar city has been successful in accumulating $250 million Masdar Clean Tech Fund (CTF) in partnership with Credit Suisse, Consensus Business Group, and Siemens.

Many philosophers, doctorates, and sceptics criticize the Masdar city project. These researchers feel that after some time the city will nothing more than a luxury development and a source of Abu Dhabi’s symbolism.

The Positive Aspect of Masdar City

The Masdar city is planned, designed, and constructed to enhance the economic development and promote new industries with in the fair share of the earth’s natural resources. The innovations applied in the Masdar project intends to make the city as the largest and most advanced sustainable communities in the world. The vision and attitude of the creators of Masdar city inspires other communities to come forward and make the optimum use of the natural resources available on our planet. They should also adopt the technologies for the renewable of energy, carbon management, waste management, and water management like the Masdar city project plan.