Work starts on Gulf "Green city"

[Atomic_Piggy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7237672.stm

Work starts on Gulf 'green city'

Green city planned for the desert

Abu Dhabi has started to build what it says is the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city.

Masdar City will cost $22bn (?11.3bn), take eight years to build and be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses.

The city will be mostly powered by solar energy and residents will move in travel pods running on magnetic tracks.

Abu Dhabi has one of the world's biggest per capita carbon footprints and sceptics fear Masdar may be just a fig leaf for the oil-rich Gulf emirate.

Others fear Masdar City - on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi City - may become a luxury development for the rich.

The project is supported by global conservation charity, the WWF.

Less power, less water

The city will make use of traditional Gulf architecture to create low-energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers.

Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant, Masdar says. The city will need a quarter of the power required for a similar sized community, while its water needs will be 60% lower.

The city forms part of an ambitious plan to develop clean energy technologies.

In January, the government of Abu Dhabi announced a $15bn five-year initiative to develop clean energy technologies, calling it "the most ambitious sustainability project ever launched by a government".

As part of the plan, Abu Dhabi will become home to the world's largest hydrogen power plant.

The money is being channelled through the Masdar Initiative, a company established to develop and commercialise clean energy technologies, and Abu Dhabi hopes it will lead to international joint ventures involving much more money.

Abu Dhabi will invest $4bn of equity in the project and borrow some of the rest, Masdar said.

"We are creating an array of financial vehicles to finance the $22bn development," Masdar chief executive officer Sultan al-Jaber told Reuters news agency.

"We will monetise all carbon emission reductions... Such innovative financing has never been applied to the scale of an entire city."

Very interesting and quite awesome idea.

 

[Darkside55]

Very cool. The "magnetic travel pods" for city-wide transit really has my interest piqued. It'll be interesting to see all of these ideas pulled off, not only to see if it's feasible but also acting as a model that other cities could adopt if successful.

On a note completely unrelated to the story itself, who else automatically associates "Abu Dhabi" with "Nermal?" I can't be the only one.

 

[Raziaar]

The project is supported by global conservation charity, the WWF.

World Wrestling Federation! RAAAWWWWWR!

 

[Tagaziel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7237672.stm



Very interesting and quite awesome idea.

If that works, I'm moving to Abu Dhabi.

 

[Dan]

What exactly is a hydrogen power plant? I assume we're not talking about fusion

 

[delusional]

What exactly is a hydrogen power plant? I assume we're not talking about fusion

nope.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/35063/story.htm

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the plant would be the first in America to use a new process that uses a chemical process to produce clean-burning hydrogen from petroleum coke, a residue from refining crude oil.

The hydrogen is burned to fuel the power plant. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide produced in the process of extracting hydrogen from coke is caught and stored.

Rather than being released into the air, about 90 percent of the gas would be trapped and injected into a natural reservoir thousands of feet underground, where it would stimulate additional oil production, BP said.

 

[Dan]

One of my friends worked near Syncrude's hydrogen production plant in Alberta. He said that it was one of only three like it in the world, and the other two had exploded.

 

[Dynasty]

Im not surprised its Abu Dhabi, Dubai alone was just awesome a few years back, now its out of control though, used to live there for 4 years.

This should be the future really, all cities should change to be like this and we'd be a better race

 

[nurizeko]

I'm sure it will make the citizens and founders feel very green and environmentally responsible in a desert covered in Oil pumps and the entire infrastructure required for a massive export trade to the world of arguably one of the biggest enemies to eco-hippies.

But, as is amusing about most of the green-hippie thing, its actions and opinions are always laughably illogical, misguided, ultimately wasteful and achieving nothing. :imu:

 

[soulslicer]

This is totally awesome. I would love to see some concept images etc.

 

[Operational]

Wow ambitious and awesome, I hope it works out well.

But, as is amusing about most of the green-hippie thing, its actions and opinions are always laughably illogical, misguided, ultimately wasteful and achieving nothing. :imu:

It's not a "green-hippie" thing, much of it's motivation is commercial, the capitalism of environmentalism if you will.

The Initiative's 'anchor partners' are some of the world's largest energy companies and elite academic institutions, and include BP, Shell, Occidental Petroleum, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Total Exploration and Production, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Rolls Royce and Imperial College London.
...
- an innovation centre to support the demonstration, commercialisation and adoption of sustainable energy technologies;
...
- a specialised development company focused on the commercialisation of emissions reduction, and Clean Development Mechanism solutions as provided by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change;

http://www.energyrisk.com/public/showPage.html?page=328626

 

[Javert]

The thing is, no one lives in Abu Dhabi. I watched a documentary about the place. People only buy the real estate there as investments, vacation homes, or to resell. The homes in the awesome picture with the leaf-shaped beaches are mostly empty.

Some call Abu Dhabi a castle in the air.