Masdar Plans World's First Green City

Dubai, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, sultans and shieks - these are foreign terms to us Westerners, but ones we no doubt will become familiar with. If you saw the television program 60 Minutes recently, you may have been awe-struck by the development occurring in Dubai, one of seven states (called Emerates) that comprise the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

http://www.masdaruae.com/

Dubai is building as fast as it can & sans environmental regulations. Dubbed the richest city in the world, it has $300 billion in development projects underway, including a skyscraper twice the height of NYCs Empire State Building. Next door, another UAE state called Abu Dhabi is following in its footsteps, but is taking a more sustainable approach. Its fascinating Madscar initiative is an attempt to create the worlds first sustainable city - Arab-style.

In April 2006, Abu Dhabi decided to create Masdar - which means - the Source - in Arabic, a walled city covering 640 hectares. Promoters say it "will be living testimony to the possibility of sustainable cities." The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the company executing the Masdar initiative, calls it the "creation of a historic global shift to new energy sources and sustainable resource utilization."

In contrast to neighboring Dubai, which is building an energy-consumptive city of glass, steel and concrete towers, Masdar is being designed to run entirely on renewable energy. World renown architect Lord Foster is designing Masdar so that its 50,000 residents will live on streets modeled on traditional souks and medinas - but draped with shades of fabric that convert sunlight into electricity. Canals will run alongside the streets, some of which will be only 10 feet wide to protect pedestrians from the heat, which averages over 40C in the shade during the summer. There will be fields of solar concentrating mirrors in the desert and wind turbines will catch breezes from the Gulf.

Palm and mangrove plantations will create a green belt around the city to provide raw material for bio-fuels, a new industry that, say developers, may one day supplement oil and gas revenues. The tiny emirate is the fifth largest exporter of oil in the world, but it is envisaged that Masdar City will not need a drop. "We want to position ourselves as thinkers and progressives," says Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar. "Years ago in the Middle East we lived in a very sustainable environment. We are bringing that back by creating a compact city where people don't need to use a car."

Adjacent to Abu Dhabi International Airport, the goal is to create a city based on sustainable employment, eventually facilitating a population of 100,000. The first stage of development will set the tone for the entire project; the construction of a state-of-the-art photovoltaic power plant that will deliver the energy required to build the entire city!

The compact, high-density city will be completely free of cars and their emissions; a world model of energy conservation with zero carbon emissions and zero waste. Compared to average urban levels, fossil fuel consumption will be reduced by 75%, water demand by 300% and waste production by 400%. Cycling and walking will be the most common means of travel.

Accoring to the city's master plan, no one will be more than 200 meters from essential facilities, including shops selling locally grown produce. A fully automated, electric Personal Rapid Transit System will provide a flexible and comfortable alternative to private cars. A Light Railway Transport system will link the Masdar development to adjacent developments, the airport and in the future with the center of Abu Dhabi.

Futuristically, developers plan to integrate real time monitoring of energy use and carbon emissions in public spaces. Digital management and intelligent systems with sensors and data mining will provide information to support the decisions of individuals and service providers.

Through a micro-chip-like network of connections, developers plan to coalesce the expertise and resources to enable global technological breakthroughs in advanced energy technologies. There will be a university education and research center - the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (in partnership with MIT) - which will offer Masters and PhD programs in science and engineering disciplines focused on advanced energy and sustainability. Its research and educational institutions and partnerships will search for solutions to mankind's most pressing problems: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development.

Special economic zones will attract business and commercial partners focused on the advanced energy systems and technologies from around the world, from start-ups to major corporations.

The city is being designed based on local climate and cultural traditions, particularly its solar movements and prevailing winds. Its orientation captures cooling sea breezes from the North, while its perimeter protects against the warmer desert winds. The Eastern wall facing the airport will be raised to provide a buffer, reducing aircraft noise in the city. Shaded by PV collecting canopies, courtyards and wind towers will draw cooling breezes into the narrow streets and filter harsh sunlight, conjuring images of ancient bazaars and market places.

Construction materials with a high thermal mass will considerably reduce energy requirements. The relationship of one building to the next will provide shading and generate year round useable spaces between them. Solar collectors will be on roofs throughout the city; wind turbines will be placed at its outskirts. The perimeter wall will form an intelligent outer shell, housing the energy, environmental and recycling services.

A solar powered desalination plant will provide a potable drinking water supply. Wastewater will be purified and recycled back to the city. In the process, it will be used to grow tree plantations, contributing to its biofuels strategy.

Carbon Sequestration is Key

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has embarked on an initiative to develop a national CO2 capture and storage (CCS) network. Leaders believe the country can reduce its CO2 emissions by 40%, while increasing oil production by up to 10% and liberatinq large quantities of natural gas by separating CO2 from industrial and energy related sources and delivering them to oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery.

In February, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company released an international request for proposals to conduct a feasibility study for carbon sequestration. The study initially targets Abu Dhabi and is expected to later expand to cover the rest of the UAE. The multi-billion dollar CCS program is the largest of its kind in the world and the first to be undertaken at a national level. Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin has been selected to conduct the study, which will be completed by the end of the year.

The firm will evaluate and rank options for onshore and offshore CO2 capture from industrial facilities in Abu Dhabi, and will identify the first project to be implemented as part of the network, provide a roadmap to develop the network and potentially link it with similar schemes across the region.

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, says, "CCS is the most promising technology for the reduction of energy-based CO2 emissions and a viable substitute for the vast amount of natural gas currently re-injected into oil reservoirs for pressure maintenance. It's a win-win, reducing CO2 emissions in the country, while increasing oil production and maximizing natural gas availability."

Future Solar Leader

Besides powering the city using solar, Masdar has visions of becoming the premium developer and installer of renewable energy systems in the Middle East and North Africa region. It has entered into a partnership with one of the world's leading renewable energy developers, Conergy AG of Germany.

The partnership will start with solar PV and then span out to fully integrated renewable energy systems including solar cooling, wind and biomass technologies. The partnership with Conergy will support Abu Dhabi's objectives to build local capacity and capability by transferring knowledge to UAE based resources in manufacturing, engineering, project management and finance of large scale renewable energy projects. Conergy will also assist Masdar in identifying and analyzing global trends in alternative energy technologies and translate them into international business opportunities.

The Masdar Clean Tech Fund, L.P. is a $250 million fund that will build a portfolio of cleantech funds, committing about $75 million to 3-5 fund managers. The remaining capital will be invested in co-investments alongside fund managers, direct investments in companies sourced by the Fund and strategic joint-venture investments. The Fund will seek to invest in companies with technologies that are suitable for commercialization in the United Arab Emirates.

Abu Dhabi is competing with Dongtan, China, which is trying to create the world's first zero carbon city on an island at the mouth of the Yangtse. The emirate believes it will win the race. "We are seeing a transition from the industrial age of human civilisation to the ecological age," says Peter Head, a director of Arup, the British engineering firm that is building Dongtan.

Study: Oil Decline Brings Risk of War

Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study

· Output peaked in 2006 and will fall 7% a year
· Decline in gas, coal and uranium also predicted

Ashley Seager
Monday October 22, 2007
The Guardian


Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico at sunset. Photo: Larry Lee/Corbis


World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report which also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown.

The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 - much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week, on Friday hitting more than $90 (£44) a barrel.

"The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy," said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG's founder and the German MP behind the country's successful support system for renewable energy.

The report's author, Joerg Schindler, said its most alarming finding was the steep decline in oil production after its peak, which he says is now behind us.

The results are in contrast to projections from the International Energy Agency, which says there is little reason to worry about oil supplies at the moment.

However, the EWG study relies more on actual oil production data which, it says, are more reliable than estimates of reserves still in the ground. The group says official industry estimates put global reserves at about 1.255 gigabarrels - equivalent to 42 years' supply at current consumption rates. But it thinks the figure is only about two thirds of that.

Global oil production is currently about 81m barrels a day - EWG expects that to fall to 39m by 2030. It also predicts significant falls in gas, coal and uranium production as those energy sources are used up.

Britain's oil production peaked in 1999 and has already dropped by half to about 1.6 million barrels a day.

The report presents a bleak view of the future unless a radically different approach is adopted. It quotes the British energy economist David Fleming as saying: "Anticipated supply shortages could lead easily to disturbing scenes of mass unrest as witnessed in Burma this month. For government, industry and the wider public, just muddling through is not an option any more as this situation could spin out of control and turn into a complete meltdown of society."

Mr Schindler comes to a similar conclusion. "The world is at the beginning of a structural change of its economic system. This change will be triggered by declining fossil fuel supplies and will influence almost all aspects of our daily life."

Jeremy Leggett, one of Britain's leading environmentalists and the author of Half Gone, a book about "peak oil" - defined as the moment when maximum production is reached, said that both the UK government and the energy industry were in "institutionalised denial" and that action should have been taken sooner.

"When I was an adviser to government, I proposed that we set up a taskforce to look at how fast the UK could mobilise alternative energy technologies in extremis, come the peak," he said. "Other industry advisers supported that. But the government prefers to sleep on without even doing a contingency study. For those of us who know that premature peak oil is a clear and present danger, it is impossible to understand such complacency."

Mr Fell said that the world had to move quickly towards the massive deployment of renewable energy and to a dramatic increase in energy efficiency, both as a way to combat climate change and to ensure that the lights stayed on. "If we did all this we may not have an energy crisis."

He accused the British government of hypocrisy. "Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have talked a lot about climate change but have not brought in proper policies to drive up the use of renewables," he said. "This is why they are left talking about nuclear and carbon capture and storage. "

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Department of Business and Enterprise said: "Over the next few years global oil production and refining capacity is expected to increase faster than demand. The world's oil resources are sufficient to sustain economic growth for the foreseeable future. The challenge will be to bring these resources to market in a way that ensures sustainable, timely, reliable and affordable supplies of energy."

The German policy, which guarantees above-market payments to producers of renewable power, is being adopted in many countries - but not Britain, where renewables generate about 4% of the country's electricity and 2% of its overall energy needs.

State of the Paper Industry Sees 'Green Wave' Changes Coming Quickly

State of the Paper Industry Sees 'Green Wave' Changes Coming Quickly
Source: GreenBiz.com

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Oct. 3, 2007 -- The new report, released by the Environmental Paper Network, examines how the paper is made today in the face of growing environmental awareness in the U.S., and calls for major changes across the industry to reduce impact and increase sustainability.

The Environmental Paper Network (EPN) is a coalition of environmental organizations seeking socially and environmentally sustainable transformations within the pulp and paper industry. The group's "State of the Paper Industry" report has been billed as the first to comprehensively address how the industry sources its materials, addresses supply chain issues, deals with end-of-life for its products, and its impacts on communities and the climate.

The need for this assessment, the group says, is that a "green wave" is sweeping North America, with ever-increasing numbers of consumers and companies seeking to address and minimize their impact on the environment. In recent months, companies across many niches of the industry have adopted green paper policies, including Victoria's Secret, Williams Sonoma, Staples, FedEx-Kinkos and Random House.

"The good news is that a shift within the paper industry has begun, and corporate leaders are emerging across every sector to embrace new tools for responsible choices, responsible production and major climate, health and forest benefits," said Joshua Martin, Environmental Paper Network Coordinator.

Martin said the report offers a vision and a challenge to the paper industry and hopes to set a baseline of environmental data that companies can use to make significant progress in coming years.

The report's findings detail a list of negative environmental impacts, including:

• The paper industry is the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries.
• Paper accounts for 25 percent of landfill waste, the largest of any single component.
• Paper production accounts for over 40 percent of the world's industrial wood harvest
• Paper production is one of the world's largest consumers and polluters of fresh water
• Paper production continues to come into conflict with indigenous and other communities around the world over land rights, culture, human health, and livelihoods

But at the same time, the green wave cited by the report's authors include significant opportunities for companies to embrace:

• Growing market demand for environmentally responsible paper products
• Growing acreage of Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable forestry
• Cleaner production and alternatives to chlorine bleaching
• Increasing recovery of waste paper
• The emergence of innovative, corporate leaders.

Among the improvements the EPN would like to see from the industry are responsible, certified forestry practices, paper recyling and recovery, a move to reduce paper consumption by its customers, and a shift toward clean production that reduces bleach and toxin emissions.