Zero Waste, Zero Carbon Emissions, A Completely Sustainable City
Could you imagine a city run completely by renewable resources, with 100% sustainability and no waste or carbon emissions? Think we are pulling your leg? In actuality, such a city is being built, in Abu Dhabi. This city which seems part fantasy, is called Masdar City and is located eleven miles south-east of the United Arab Emirate capital, Abu Dhabi. The city was designed by the architectural firm, Foster + Partners, which was made famous and renown through the designs of its founder, Norm Foster.
This project was made official in April 2006, and is expected to take eight years to build, with a cost of 22 billion US dollars. The city will cover six square kilometers and be home to 50,000 individuals, as well as 1,500 businesses, most of which will be specializing in environmentally-friendly products. The city will also be home to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), a university which will work closely with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Uniquely, transportation in Masdar City, will not include, autombiles. That’s right, cars are banned, all travel in the city will be dependent on public transportation and personal rapid transit systems!
Masdar City will be run entirely from renewable resources, which will include a 40 to 60 megawatt solar power plant. In addition, a similiar but larger facility will eventually be constructed, as well as rooftop photovoltaic modules. The city will also derive energy from wind farms, located outside the city and eventually, from geothermal power as well. Lastly, Masdar City hopes to generate some energy from a hydrogen power plant as well. If things go according to plan, Masdar City will be home to the largest hydrogen power plant in the world!
This is especially interesting, when one considers the stragic and important role, which water plays in the region. Yet energy will not be water’s only role in the city, a solar powered desalination plant will be built, and serve as the source of water for the city. Designers have sought to make water use as efficient as possible, thus about 80% of the water will be ‘recycled’, in order to use as much of it as possible, with ‘unusable’ water going to irrigation purposes. In addition to water ‘waste’, other forms of biological waste will be used for irrigation purposes as well, and possibly even as sources of energy. Other forms of recyclable waste, will of course be recycled or used for other specific uses.
Masdar City is not the only project of this nature, similar projects can be found in:
-Novosibirsk, Russia
-Tsukuba Science City, Japan
Check out Masdar City via Youtube
or online at: http://www.masdaruae.com/
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 1:07 am and is filed under Starry Night Lights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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