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Thursday, May 08, 2008 Building the Zero-Emissions CityA city being built in Abu Dhabi will serve as a large-scale test for renewable energy. By Kevin Bullis
Last week, in the harsh desert climate of Abu Dhabi, construction started on a city that will house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses but use extremely little energy, and what it does use will come from renewable sources. The initial building is a new research institute that the founders hope will be the seed for the equivalent of a Silicon Valley of the Middle East, only one centered not on information technology but on renewable energy. The city, which is expected to cost $22 billion, will implement an array of technologies, including thin-film solar panels that serve as the facades and roofing materials for buildings, ubiquitous sensors for monitoring energy use, and driverless vehicles powered by batteries that make cars unnecessary. Indeed, the city's founders hope that it will serve as a test bed for a myriad of new technologies being proposed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The new zero-emissions city, which is being built near the city of Abu Dhabi in the center of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is part of the Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion government-funded investment program designed in part to ensure that the UAE's prosperity won't be linked exclusively to its oil. Its leaders say that the project will give the country a leadership position in renewable energy. If it's successful, says Sultan al Jaber, Masdar's CEO, "we'll be sitting on top of the world." Designing the city from the ground up will bring a number of advantages. About half of the cost of solar energy comes from installation materials and labor. In Masdar, thin-film solar cells can be incorporated directly into the facades of buildings in place of conventional construction materials, reducing the costs of the solar power. Energy needed for cooling will be reduced by controlling the orientation and design of the city's buildings, streets, and green spaces to find a balance between shade and sun, and to promote natural-air circulation. Air conditioners will use absorption chillers that run on heat from the sun in place of conventional compressors. Energy for transportation will also be reduced. Efficient electric transports will provide door-to-door service: just type in your destination, and the transport will come to your door and take you automatically to your destination. The power will be generated by renewable energy and stored onboard in batteries. On Monday, Masdar received the first bids on the system, which will likely use battery-powered vehicles running on tracks or powered by magnetic levitation. Water use will be kept to a minimum--which will reduce energy needed for desalination. And sensors throughout the city will also keep residents informed of their energy use--and when they're going to have to pay extra for using too much. All told, the city's designers predict that efficiency improvements will result in a 75 percent reduction in energy consumption compared with a conventional city of the same size. The energy that is used will come almost entirely from solar--with wind and power from technology that converts garbage into fuel contributing smaller amounts. |
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Making Cheaper Solar Cells
09/12/2007
Comments
gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 2:56 AM
282
Plataputylus on 05/08/2008 at 7:52 AM
3
gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 12:15 PM
282
This is deja vu - the tobacco industry has pulled exactly the same tricks before.
afhouston on 05/08/2008 at 2:19 PM
1
So it is ironic that oil profits are being used to create a more sustainable future. Irony doesn't equal conspiracy.
You should be more concerned about the way foreign labor is being exploited in Dubai. If anything, this stunt is to show how progressive the country is when in fact, it's quite oppressive and unjust to most of its populace.
gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 4:04 PM
282
camdaddy09 on 05/08/2008 at 5:31 PM
18
fensterbaby on 05/09/2008 at 5:48 AM
3
The US is so far behind in the area of forward thinking energy policy that it's pathetic.
Every time I read a story about an alternative energy project it's anywhere but in the US
inQbation-com on 05/08/2008 at 9:45 PM
1
avatar on 05/13/2008 at 2:12 PM
1
gabrielg01 on 05/13/2008 at 5:17 PM
282
The point was that they should not flaunt themselves as a green nation. None of the Emirates and the other oil nations are green.
Funny how such simple things get misunderstood.
Rigatoni on 05/08/2008 at 1:54 PM
3
fensterbaby on 05/09/2008 at 5:50 AM
3
Rigatoni on 05/10/2008 at 2:39 AM
3
ailakhani on 05/12/2008 at 5:56 AM
1
gabrielg01 on 05/12/2008 at 3:08 PM
282
Overtone on 05/13/2008 at 8:14 PM
1
An abundant, renewable, inexpensive, energy source, never before commercialized, is under development. This revolutionary breakthrough can enable the rapid reduction of the need for fossil and uranium fuels.
Conversion of what he called "space energy" by means of a solid-state device was demonstrated in Germany by Hans Coler in 1926. The following year Nobel physicist Werner Heisenberg stated: "We could utilize magnetism as an energy source."
Coler later built a 6 kW generator, which he displayed in 1937. Six years later the Nazi navy supported his work in a secret project designed to recharge submarine batteries without the need to surface. His lab was bombed in early 1945. However, after WWII ended he cooperated with British Intelligence which published an initially classified Report on his work, the following year. In 1978, parts of that Report was declassified. Those pages can now be found on the web.
In 2001, the late Sir Arthur Clarke predicted that during 2009: "The first quantum generators (tapping space energy) are developed. Available in portable and household units, from a few kilowatts upwards, they can produce electricity indefinitely."
Our work involves both solid-state and mechanical systems that convert this previously unutilized source of energy. It will deservedly meet with great skepticism. However, independent laboratory evaluation is planned in the near-future. Demonstration devices and toys will help anyone understand that the planet has a surprising energy alternative.
Perhaps one of the most astonishing achievements will be the ability of this technology to turn future cars, trucks and buses into power plants. They will be able to wirelessly transmit up to 150 kW to the grid, when suitably parked, using already proven technology for that purpose.
Vehicles will become investments, that will pay for themselves over a reasonable period of time.
This will end the need to build new coal and uranium fueled power plants.
We hope to participate in the Masdar Project