Masdar City

MASDAR CITY



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Masdar City
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Introduction
Masdar City (Arabic: مدينة مصدر‎, Madīnat Maṣdar, literally Source City) is a project in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Its core is a planned city, which is being built by the Abu DhabiFuture Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The city is being constructed 17 kilometers (11 mi)east-south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, beside Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Masdar City will host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The city is designed to be a hub for cleantech companies. Its first tenant is the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which has been operating in the city since it moved into its campus in September 2010.  The city as a wholewas originally intended to be completed by 2016 but that date has now been pushed back to 2025.

Design and intent
Main body
The project is headed by Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company. Initiated in 2006, the project was projected to costUS$22 billion and take some eight years to build, with the first phase scheduled to be completed and habitable in 2009. Construction beganon Masdar City in 2008 and the first six buildings of the city were completed and occupied in October 2010. However, due to the impact of the financial crisis, Phase 1 of the city, the initial 1,000,000 square meters (0.39 sq mi), will be completed in 2015. Final completion is scheduled to occur between 2020 and 2025. The estimated cost of the city has also declined by 10 to 15 percent, putting thedevelopment betweenUS$18.7 and 19.8 billion. The city is planned to cover 6 square kilometers (2.3 sq mi) and will be home to 45,000 to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses, primarily commercial and manufacturing facilities specializing in environmentally friendly products, and more than 60,000 workers are expected to commute to the city daily. Automobiles will be banned within the city; travelwill be accomplished via public mass transit and personal rapid transit systems, with existing road and railways connecting to other locations outside the city. The absence of motor vehicles coupled with Masdar's perimeter wall, designed to keep out the hot desert winds, allows for narrow and shaded streets that help funnel cooler breezes across the city
Masdar City will be the latest of a smallnumber of highly planned, specialized, research and technology-intensive municipalities that incorporate a living environment, similar to KAUST, Saudi Arabia or Tsukuba Science City, Japan.
Partners in the project through its Clean Tech Fund are Consensus Business Group, Credit Suisse and Siemens Venture Capital.[18] Construction of the first phase of the project is being managed by CH2M HILL.Infrastructure construction for the city will be handled by the Al Jaber Group and design of the central Masdar headquarters building has been awarded to Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Masdar will employ a variety of renewable power resources. Among the first construction projects will be a 40 to 60 megawatt solar power plant, built by the German firm Co-energy, which will supply power forall other construction activity This will later be followed by a larger facility, and additional solar panels will be placed on rooftops to provide supplemental solar energy totaling 130 megawatts. Wind farms will be established outside the city's perimeter capable of producing up to 20 megawatts, and the city intends to utilize geothermal energy as well. In addition, Masdar plans to host the...