The United Arab of Emmerits is constructing the world’s first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city in Aubu Dabi, named Masdar. The official ground-breakingfor the Masdar Initiative took place on February 9, 2008, though the plans for the project began way back in 2006. The construction of the development is will be phased over seven years and is aimed to be completed before 2015 with a cost of $22 billion US dollars. The first phase of construction, building the Masdar City Headquarters and the Institute of Science and Technology, is currently scheduled to be complete within the last quarter of 2010.
The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, is responsible for the construction of the 6 million square meter city while the design can be accredited to the British architectural firm Foster and Partners. Nestled adjacent to Abu Dhabi’s international Airport, Masdar links the main communities of Abu Dhabi and will be home to a new university called the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the Headquarters for Abu Dhabi’s Future Energy Company, special economic zones and an Innovation Center. The city is an example of some of the most sustainable and detailed environmental planning the world has seen.
In order to become the “zero-waste” city that they pride themselves on already, Masdar required some comprehensive and detailed planning in advanced energy; sustainable transportation; water and waste management; energy efficiency; green construction and materials; biodiversity; climate change; and sustainable finance. One of the more ambitious features of the city is that it is car free. Designed so that there is no more than 200 meters to public transportation and services, the city will be made of a united to community of walkers. With sustainable technologies, the first phase of Masdar alone will capture around 6.5 million tons of CO2 from power plants and industrial facilities in Abu Dhabi by 2013. The walled city of Masdar will be able to sustain approximately 47,500 residents that will benefit from 100% foreign ownership, zero taxes, zero import tariffs, zero restrictions on capital movement and strong property protection in the region. In order to combat the energy demands, the developers invested in the most technologically advanced companies to use the most renewable and sustainable energy options like Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), Photovaltaic (PV), and Wind and Waste-to-Energy. There will be a 500 MW hydrogen-fired power plant that can make hydrogen through spillover advantages for the existing oil and gas industries. In order to collaborate in ongoing research and development of alternative and renewable energy technologies and solutions, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology became an inaugural founding member of MIT’s Energy Initiative in February of 2009. Seen as the new emerging hub for renewable energy, Masdar will be hosting the World Future Energy Summit, consisting of over 50 participating countries, January 18-21, 2010.
Kristin Sukys
This sounds like an amazing project, but how will this community sustain itself with zero-taxes? It seems unfeasible to have a community of residents and businesses, just as any other community, with no taxes levied on them. How is UAE affording this? Are they able to pay for this because of the massive amounts of oil produced and sold from their country? I admire them for having the foresight to plan and start building on this project, but I don’t particularly understand the reasoning behind the funding part.
ReplyDeleteClearly this is where all the money from oil sales goes? At least their turing their controversial nonrenewable resource and turing into something revolutionarily "green". At first I thought it sounded like a really neat idea because in my opinion any efforts to create a communtiy like this are good efforts. At least it can be used as an example for other communities as far as what works, and what does not.
ReplyDeleteThough the idea of it being a utopia of sorts is a little creepy. Walls around the city, no taxes, no import tariffs, and no restrictions on capital movement? Sounds crazy. Ever seen The Truman Show or even LOST?
Very interesting article though, I hope it works out to some degree.
Annah, I spent hours researching ways that the city would sustain itself while being tax free. I found no financial plan for the city, however I did learn a lot more about the funding of the city, which may contribute to its future funding and savings as well (instead of having its citizens pay taxes).
ReplyDeleteWith Abu Dabi being the world's fifth largest exporter of oil and sixth largest producer of natural gas, it is an immensely rich emirate, having a pre-capita GDP of $63,000, compared with $45,000 in the US and UK. The EU currently gets none of its energy from renewable sources and is planning on having the Masdar Initiative being Abu Dhabi's contribution to their "concern" with climate change. The World Wildlife Fund even said that the citizens of Abu Dhabi have the "biggest carbon footprint in the world."
As for the money for such a project, the EU government is shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars that they have saved up from oil revenue. Then, in 2006, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced that the government would pour another additional $15 billion into Masdar. At UN’s Clean Development Summit, Masdar announced that they were going to invest some of that money into building the world’s first hydrogen power plants that would tap into their natural gas and transform it into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. They hydrogen would be used for energy and the CO2 would be trapped, creating clean power from fossil fuels. It really sounds like the EU is taking a step up and getting serious about going green—or so they say.