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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Building the Zero-Emissions City

Continued from page 1

By Kevin Bullis
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This, as least, is the theory. One of the main purposes of the city is to find out what works and what doesn't. This experiment will continue even after the city is completed in eight years; "innovation hubs" throughout the city will test new technologies, including some developed at the new Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. The school is being developed in partnership with MIT, which is selecting faculty and designing curricula.

Of the $22 billion in expected costs, the Abu Dhabi government will provide about $4 billion for infrastructure. The rest of the money will come from outside investors. Masdar's leaders hope that the city's environmental credentials and low energy costs--along with tax breaks--will lure buyers to the property. "We want it to be profitable, not a sunk cost," says Khaled Awad, who is directing the development of the city. "If it is not profitable as a real-estate development, it's not sustainable. Then it will never be replicable anywhere else."

In some ways, however, it won't be replicable. Al Jaber notes that the project could not have been done anywhere else--"It's a huge risk." The enormous wealth in Abu Dhabi, which Fortune ranked the world's richest city last year, makes a zero-emissions city a tenable proposition. What's more, the design is specific to Abu Dhabi, accounting for, for example, the position of the sun throughout the year (which is dependent on the city's latitude), the high temperatures (which are bad for most solar cells), and the nature of the wind (the city will use wind turbines much smaller than conventional ones because of low wind speeds). As a result, future developments outside the region will have to be redesigned. "Everywhere we go, we will have to custom-tailor our model for the specific environment," al Jaber says.

Nevertheless, Paul Dickerson, the chief operating officer for the United States' Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, believes that Masdar will prove a valuable model. "We will no longer have to guess what the city of the future looks like," he says. "In Abu Dhabi, we will be able to see it with our own eyes."
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Comments

  • Corporate Hipocrisy
    gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 2:56 AM
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    The irony, of course, is that this zero-emissions city is financed by oil profits. Like the tobacco industry financing lung cancer research...
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    • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
      Plataputylus on 05/08/2008 at 7:52 AM
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      Gabrielg, go back under your rock.  Exactly what is it that makes this experiement a bad thing?  Think they're going to tank the results to show that "sustainability" doesn't work??  If nothing else, this experiment will provide a huge volume of data about what works and what doesn't.  If "oil profits" as you so disdainfully describe them, are funding this, then perhaps we should be lauding the UAE for their vision, instead of maligning their motives.  Life is much nicer on this side of the negativity line...
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      • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
        gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 12:15 PM
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        Yeah sure, first they go for huge profits with a complete disregard to what their industry is doing to the environment, and what the costs would be for larger society to fix the problems they create. Then as a public relations move, they try to placate the public by setting up some research fund to show how "socially responsible" they are.

        This is deja vu - the tobacco industry has pulled exactly the same tricks before.
        Rate this comment: 12345
        • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
          afhouston on 05/08/2008 at 2:19 PM
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          A little paranoid aren't we?

          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.
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          • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
            gabrielg01 on 05/08/2008 at 4:04 PM
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            I'm not paranoid about it, just disgusted. They were one of the big forces behind environmental destruction across the globe, and now when their coffers are full with money they flaunt their "greenness". Fake!
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            • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
              camdaddy09 on 05/08/2008 at 5:31 PM
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              who gives a shit. its better than doing nothing like us
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              • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
                fensterbaby on 05/09/2008 at 5:48 AM
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                amen brother.

                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
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    • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
      inQbation-com on 05/08/2008 at 9:45 PM
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      It is neither hypocrisy nor conspiracy, it is forward thinking.  Obviously, they know that oil is finite.  So, they are researching and developing technologies that they can offer in 15-25 years when the world's easily accessible petroleum is gone.  it is smart business.  I'm glad that somebody realizes that fossil fuels are a one-time gift from nature that will soon be depleted.
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    • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
      avatar on 05/13/2008 at 2:12 PM
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      Is your point that you should only build a zero-emissions city if it is financed by bottle and can redemptions.  Sure it's ironic, but the money has to come from somewhere.
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      • Re: Corporate Hipocrisy
        gabrielg01 on 05/13/2008 at 5:17 PM
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        They, and many others, should go ahead with as many green cities as possible...and it doesn't matter if it's financed by oil money.

        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.
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  • Good, but tragic.
    Rigatoni on 05/08/2008 at 1:54 PM
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    No one would even dare to try something this ambitious in the US - and that's if they could even obtain the funding, which they couldn't because corporate America would never finance it.  But Abu Dhabi - an anarcho-capitalist feudal state smack in the middle of Islam Central - is making us look backward and conservative.  I wish this bothered more people, because it bothers me.  We should applaud Abu Dhabi for being this ambitious...and then outdo them spectacularly.  But, of course, we won't.  It makes me ill.
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    • Re: Good, but tragic.
      fensterbaby on 05/09/2008 at 5:50 AM
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      Get used to it. 20 years from  now the US will be a third world nation.
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      • Re: Good, but tragic.
        Rigatoni on 05/10/2008 at 2:39 AM
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        "Get used to it" isn't a solution.  I refuse to tolerate watching this country become the Alabama of the world.
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  • First hand knowledge
    ailakhani on 05/12/2008 at 5:56 AM
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    Hysterical is how I describe the opinions that you all have on a wonderful work like MASDAR CITY.  I guess not many of you have ever been to Abu Dhabi or Dubai.  Sure, Abu Dhabi is using its so called 'oil' money to do 'extraordinary' stuff like making a city that'll serve the future generations.  It is very comforting to know that it isn't using this money to develop its defense arsenal or become nuclear!  If US were to divert even a fragment of its defence budget, it would end up probably creating multiple cities of similar kind.    Finally, how can one be so naive to over look the fact that the OIL is being demanded by the customers.  Oil companies are NOT forcing you to drive you cars.   I guess if you really care for the environment, you should STOP driving the cars and the oil rich countries will STOP selling OIL.
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    • Re: First hand knowledge
      gabrielg01 on 05/12/2008 at 3:08 PM
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      If you actually read the posts carefully, you will notice that nobody said or implied that the US is not part of the problem. America, the major oil consumer, is just as responsible for pollution as the oil sellers are. The social analogy would be prostitution. There are people who blame the prostitutes for selling their services, and there are people who blame the johns for buying those services. This is idiotic - you can't blame only one side for what is happening. On the other hand, we can clearly point to the hypocrisy of the players involved. A country that made its riches by selling oil maybe should not be flaunting its "greenness". To follow up on the previous analogy, Mother Theresa was not a prostitute before starting to do good things for society. Get the point?
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  • Emerging Energy Technology
    Overtone on 05/13/2008 at 8:14 PM
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    The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, addressing the World Future Energy Conference earlier this year said: "The problem of climate change is so grave and urgent that we have less than 10 years to slow, stop and, indeed, reverse greenhouse gas emissions." Masdar is his baby.

    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
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