14 DAY TRIAL // A patch of seemingly-inhospitable terrain in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, will within 5 to 10 years become home to the first city in the world that will be completely carbon-neutral. The goal is to construct a city of about 50,000 without relaying on dirty technologies and fossil fuels at all. Given that the construction site is located in a country that produces vast amounts of oil every day, this is at least interesting. The entire complex, its architects and designers say, will be powered up by various forms of renewable energy, including solar and wind power.
The most challenging thing about building a city in the desert is that you need to account for the scorching heat. That is why the designers decided to make the Sun their primary ally, rather than their enemy. They plan to include a host of new solar technologies into the city, including centralization devices. These would work by focusing sunlight gathered by mirrors into a central tower, which would then direct a 1-meter-thick stream of light into various generators, for producing electricity. The entire city will be dominated by a large LED, which will be affixed to the rooftop of a wind turbine.
This is meant to be a representation reminding inhabitants of where they are living. If the light is blue, then all power levels in the city are running accordingly. If the LED turns red, then all the renewable means of electricity production cannot generate sufficient power to keep everything going. But the best thing about Masdar is that it will feature no cars, and therefore no obnoxious emissions. There will also be no large structures, such as skyscrapers, as plans are to reduce the amount of baking needed to make cement by as much as possible. Moving around will be possible by foot, or by a special underground transport system, the Personal Rapid Transit, featuring podcars.
The vehicles will be unmanned, and will be directed via magnetic lanes to a destination of the passenger's choosing. Masdar is not a far-off idea, but it is being built as we speak. Some work has already been done at the construction site, and the entire project is expected to cost between $15 and $30 billion dollars. The money is provided by the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the BBC News reports. It is also being said that some of the technologies that will be used in the new, walled city were inspired directly from lunar base concepts. They will all be made to work together, to ensure heat dissipation, shade, breezes and clean air for all Masdar inhabitants.