Oil-rich, high-living gulf nation creating first carbon-neutral city
<http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2009/03/22/zerocarbon0322.html>http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2009/03/22/zerocarbon0322.html By <mailto:bgeecoxnews.com>Robert W. Gee Cox Washington Bureau Sunday, March 22, 2009 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - This oil-rich swath of desert is better known for its carbon-emitting excesses. In Dubai, an indoor ski slope makes snow year-round, even during the sweltering summer. But amid all of the air-conditioned SUVs and mega-malls, the ruling sheikhs have taken an environmental turn. Construction is under way on what is being called the world’s first carbon-neutral city, rising from a featureless sandy expanse near the Abu Dhabi airport. Green as the city is intended to be, some environmentalists have criticized the project for deflecting attention from ongoing unsustainable development in a region with few natural resources aside from oil. The city called Masdar, Arabic for “source,” will have 40,000 residents and be powered exclusively by the sun, wind and heat stored in the earth. “It’s very leading edge and very innovative,” said Richard Hirsekorn, an Atlanta native and city governance director for the project, managed by the American company CH2M Hill. That’s the same company that manages the new cities of Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Chattahoochee Hills (in south Fulton County). The $22 billion initiative sponsored by the Abu Dhabi government will apply “many principles and technologies that haven’t been used on this scale in a city anywhere in the world,” Hirsekorn said. Critics say the initiative isn’t changing the focus or pace of development in the United Arab Emirates, which is among the world’s highest per-capita carbon emitters. “People will still fly in through the airport next door and go shopping in the mall on the other side of the street. The goods and services imported are still made with and of hydrocarbons,” said Peter Droege, chairman of the World Council on Renewable Energy and the author of “The Renewable City: A Comprehensive Guide to an Urban Revolution.” Project leaders are relying on future “green” innovations - what project manager Amer Battikhi calls “jumps in technologies” - to make the goal possible. For that reason, many of the solar fields planned for the city will be built near the end of the eight-year project. A 10-megawatt solar farm was built first, however, to generate power for the first phase of construction. Planners are also using recycled steel and recycled concrete and hope to recycle and reuse all construction waste. Waste that can’t be recycled is being collected in hopes that future technologies will allow it to be recycled. Much of the city is being constructed on a platform, or pedestal. Above the pedestal will be pedestrian streets and a dense mix of businesses and homes. Below the pedestal, a fleet of nearly 3,000 electric vehicles called “personal rapid transit” pods will carry residents and visitors through the city. Traditional cars will be barred from entering Masdar. Light rail will connect the city with the carbon-emitting world. Water will be produced by solar-powered desalination and will be reused for irrigation. Even the dew will be collected for use. Planners expect to eliminate 98 percent of waste through reducing packaging of products, composting wet waste and generating electricity by burning dry waste and recycling the exhaust. Despite the emphasis on technology, the city will have a back-to-the-future feel. It will borrow heavily from traditional urban design concepts of the Middle East: narrow streets oriented to capture the prevailing wind, shallow pools that cool the air, so-called wind towers that push cooler air to the ground and act as natural air conditioners, and ornamental window screens called mashrabiya. Because of these and other features, the city expects to use one-quarter of the power and 40 percent of the water of a similar-sized community. Planners envision an Old World lifestyle of fewer hassles and no pollution. Most residents will live within walking distance of shops and work. “We intend for it to be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience,” said Dean Trueman, director of communications for Masdar. But don’t pack your bags just yet: Homes will not be for sale on the open market. The experiment in sustainable living will be available only for employees of renewable energy companies with offices there and for students at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The population is expected to reach 40,000 when the project is complete in 2016. An additional 50,000 workers are expected to <http://projects.ajc.com/topics/metro/atlanta-transportation/?cxntlid=linkr>commute to the city. Masdar officials, who consider it a blueprint for urban living of the future, hope the city becomes an incubator for alternative energy, a sort of Silicon Valley for clean technology, and inspires similar projects elsewhere. “Why not build another Masdar in Korea? Or why not outside Atlanta?” Hirsekorn said. The first residents of Masdar will move in this fall. They will be a first class of 24 master’s students and 14 faculty members at the Masdar Institute, which will focus entirely on education and research in renewable energy. <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Custom Faith-based U.S. Postage <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://astore.amazon.com/halthekin-20>Catholic on Amazon <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/on+allposters+today.html>on AllPosters today <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Kingdom!<*}}}>< + "A person is a person, no matter how small." 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