14 DAY TRIAL // Now that's really unexpected! I always thought that the first pollution-free city will be build in the United States, not in the middle east. I guess this should be an example for a country that considers itself the most technologically advanced in the world, but is still being the biggest carbon dioxide emitter and has been dodging international regulation related to carbon dioxide emission for more than three decades. Take that, U.S.! They can do it without the petrol, why can't you?
Can you imagine that? A country that is practically drowning in oil will build a 50,000 people city in which cars are banned. United Arab Emirates officials say that the building process will start immediately and the future town will be powered by electric energy produced with the help of solar panels. The location where the Masdar City will be build 'constantly' receives high levels of energy through the light radiated from the Sun, and it is predicted that the people will probably move around with the help of electric energy powered automated pods.
The city will be powered through renewable energy only, thus carbon dioxide emissions will be close to zero, meaning it will probably be the city with the best air quality in the world. Khaled Awad, the director of the project, stated that, when finished in 2013, the city will span over a surface of about six square kilometers. Automated pods will be somehow like small cars running on railway tracks on automated systems, in order to provide with a non-polluting transport solution.
The city will be in fact a residential area located near the sea, with low buildings covered by solar panel roofs and protected against the desert heat and noise with a side wall. Although it is considered one of the biggest oil and natural gases supplier in the world, the Abu Dhabi site is thought to deplete its reserves in about 150 years.
Unlike other countries in the middle east, which benefit of great reserves of oil and natural gas, the United Arab Emirates are constantly diversifying their economical potential to escape the oil-dependent economy. Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, has already allocated 15 billion dollars funds to start the building of the city in less than a month.
On top of that, that non-polluting city will benefit of a 100-megawatt solar power plant, which will be later upgraded to 500-megawatt to release the pressure of the national power grid.