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y Kevin Bullis on February 24, 2009

 Zero-Emissions City in the DesertOil-rich Abu Dhabi is building a green metropolis. Should the rest of theworld care?

he first hints of the project are visible. A white wall stretches through the desert, like a chalk line on a

usty playing field. A bus with darkened windows stirs a low cloud, ferrying workers past a cluster of

eel cranes, two portable drilling rigs, and a stand of concrete columns sprouting rust-colored rebar. A

ll wire fence guards rows of solar panels mounted on concrete pads.

he construction is the start of a vast experiment, an attempt to create the world’s first car-free, zero-

arbon-dioxide-emissions, zero-waste city. Due to be completed in 2016, the city is the centerpiece of

e Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion investment by the government of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the

nited Arab Emirates. The new development, being built on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city, will run

most entirely on energy from the sun and will use just 20 percent as much power as a conventional

ty of similar size. Garbage will be sorted and recycled or used for compost; sewage will be processed

to fuel. Concrete columns will lift the city seven meters off the ground, creating space underneath for

network of automated electric transports that will replace cars. Planners predict that the development

ill attract 1,500 clean-tech businesses, ranging from large international corporations to startups, and–

ventually–some 50,000 residents.

he city will be an oasis of renewable energy in a country of five million, made rich by oil, that consumes

e most natural resources per capita in the world. Seen one way, it’s just the latest ostentatious project

a country that’s been defined by them. Indeed, the UAE is already home to the world’s tallest building

nd an enormous indoor ski facility that features a 200-meter-long black-diamond slope. Real-estate

evelopers have dredged coral and sand from the sea floor, piling it up in the Persian Gulf to create

ands in the shape of palm trees and a map of the world.

et many experts are optimistic that the city can become a test bed for new approaches to the

ngineering and architectural problems involved in creating environmentally sustainable cities. Although

chitects have already designed and builders constructed many small zero-emissions residences and

ommercial buildings, projects involving large, multi-use commercial buildings have fallen short of

xpectations, using too much energy or failing to generate enough. Part of the problem is the growing

omplexity that comes with scale, says J. Michael McQuade, senior vice president of science and

chnology at United Technologies in Hartford, CT; today’s design software hasn’t been able to handle

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redits: Kevin Bullis, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

deo by Kevin Bullis

agged: Business, Energy, renewable energy, solar, electricity, solar panels, Masdar

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Reporters Notebook: Kevin Bullis

Click here to hear what is was likereporting from Abu Dhabi for thisstory.

MULTIMEDIA

See a fly-through animation of the

Masdar City design.

See a diagram of the Masdar

Initiative’s Headquarters.

Visit the solar test field site at

Masdar City.

But Masdar City, itself developed with the help of extensive modeling, will be wired from the beginning

collect data that could prove valuable for developing better models. That information could make

ture zero-emissions cities cheaper and easier to build.

nd the development is meant to make money, not just introduce

ew technology. “We want Masdar City to be profitable, not just a

unk cost,” said Khaled Awad, the project’s director of property

evelopment, at a huge real-estate exhibition in Dubai last fall. “If

is not profitable as a real-estate development, it is not

ustainable.” Yet if it is, it may be replicable.

f environmental engineers, by gaining experience from building this wild city, become much more

roductive at building the next city, this starts to move from being science fiction to something Houston

ould adopt,” says Matthew Kahn, a professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

il Friend, CEO of Natural Logic, a sustainable-design company based in Berkeley, CA, agrees. “I see

asdar on the one hand as a playground for the rich,” he says, “and on the other hand as an R&D

pportunity to deploy and test out technology that, if things go well, will show up in other cities.”

f course, much of what’s learned from Masdar won’t apply

utside the incredibly hot and sunny coast of the Persian Gulf. A

te in Germany, which wouldn’t get as much sunlight, couldn’t rely

s heavily on solar energy. A site in San Francisco might not need

r conditioning, making information about advanced cooling

ystems less relevant. But if the project reaches its environmental

oals, it will at the very least show that such cities can be built.

People say, ‘Gee, that would be great. That would be a good idea,

ut obviously it’s not possible,’” Friend says. “Once you can point

something, it takes away a lot of those arguments.”

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