World's First Zero Emissions City

By Travis Williams

Abu Dhabi, a city set in one of the harshest climates in the world, begins plans to build a zero emissions city which will house 50,000 residents and over 1,500 businesses. The founders of the city hope to mimic a Silicon Valley atmosphere, attracting investment from firms which hope to display their newest green technology. Moreover, firms will be able to use the city as a test run for their products, using them in real world conditions so that when the technology hits the market, it will be efficient and cost effective. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, in conjunction with MIT, will be monitoring the energy hubs throughout the city to keep tabs on the cities energy use, which if too high, the cost will fall on the residents.

The funding for this auspicious project will be coming from the United Arab Emirates who will be putting up 15 billion dollars as a government funded investment program. The project supports the UEA’s agenda to increase the demand for alternative forms of energy, other than oil, increasing their domestic energy security.

The latest green technology such as thin film photovoltaic energy will be used on every building roof, cars running on batteries, wind turbines lining the streets and sensors in every corner to monitor the cities functions. All of the cities compost will be recycled and used as biofuel to add to the cities sustainable way of life.

The project is set to be completed around the year 2018 and is expected to cost nearly 22 billion dollars. The government will be providing a substantial portion of the investment with the remaining amount to be paid for by private firms.

Will this project attract the investment from renewable energy R&D? Skeptics point to the harsh and variable climate of the Northern United Arab Emirates as a hard place to test technologies because the climate is unlike most regions and therefore would not provide an adequate test site.

The city is also banking on the idea that companies will want to relocate to the zero emissions city but this is assuming that the companies will have the necessary productive technologies to adapt to such low greenhouse gas emissions.

We at Points North Energy admire such projects as the zero emissions city and are eager to see the project's completion.