I was walking around Dhiyafa Street on a recent trip to Dubai when I noticed something very unexpected. In one short stroll I was passed by (and I counted them) 15 people on bicycles! It was a strange feeling. There were bike lanes. The pedestrian crossings were very safe and had traffic lights for cars and pedestrians, with those little buttons you push that tell you to wait.

Upon further investigation, I found a hidden building which apparently houses the labor force that is constructing this new part of town. You can’t really see them clearly in the photo but there are literally hundreds of bicycles there. This one labour camp is seeding a culture of pedestrian and bicycle activity in the whole area! Once the infrastructure is set up, and people see other people on bikes, they won’t hesitate to join. The idea is to give people as much choice in transportation as possible and not simply force one mode onto everyone.

I also got a chance to visit Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the people in charge there were incredibly competent and passionate about what they’re doing. Maybe the lethargic attitude in Kuwait lowered my expectations, but I really have changed my mind about Masdar. I have a good feeling now that they really know what they’re doing and that it’s not just some grand-scale publicity stunt for Abu Dhabi. There’s not much to see there yet, but they are pretty deep into the technical design phase. It was fun and a bit surreal seeing pedestrian urbanism ideas, passive cooling, smart grid technology and pricing incentives all come together in one city. The skeptic in me still thinks it’s all too good to be true, but I hope i’m wrong again.

There is a world, a world in which we live in, where not everything is as perfect as we wish it was. But the folks over at the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company want to change that. They will be in charge of the creation and production of Masdar City, the world’s first city to have a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The area, will cover 2.3 square miles, and will be powered by a 40-60 megawatt solar power plant, photovoltaic modules will be stationed on all roofs producing another 130 megawatts, with wind farms built just outside of the city’s borders powering the city with another 20 megawatts.

Masdar also intend on hosting the largest hydrogen power plant in the world, stationed in the United Arab Emirates. It’s water supply will be roughly 60% less than similarly sized communities and will still be enough for all 50,000 inhabitants, 80% of that water will be recycled, with the other 20% being waste water being used for crop irrigation. They also have a nice little waste plan, attempting to reduce it to zero, they will use waste for fertilizer and if an extra power source is needed they will use waste incineration. Metals and plastics will be re-cycled or re-used for other purposes.

As for travel, automobiles are to be outlawed within the city borders, instead the inhabitants of Masdar City will accomplish travel through public mass transits and podcars (personal rapid transit). The city will also be surrounded by a perimeter wall channelling out hot desert winds and instead allowing cooler breezes to roam through it’s streets. Educationally, Masdar City will have the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), the little sister to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Below are some pictures of what’s to come.

Green Consumer Habits in the Recession: American consumers, with their tendency to make green purchasing choices based on personal self-interest, have more in common with their counterparts in developing economies than one might ever have imagined. — Joel Makower’s Two Steps Forward

Building the EV Ecosystem: “Parts suppliers for electric-powered vehicles, many of them small specialty electronics builders, will have to substantially improve to meet very stringent auto industry quality and reliability requirements.” — Autoblog Green

Cash for a New Clunker: The $3 billion cash-for-clunkers program “was kinda sorta supposed to send inefficient, high-polluting, belchy vehicles to an early grave. Instead it put a lot of new large, inefficient vehicles on the road.” — Grist

Real Climate Bill Fun Starts Next Week: The climate bill isn’t going to live or die on its environmental credentials, but rather on its cost. So decisions made in Sen. Max Baucus’ finance committee hearing on the bill next week could make or break public support. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Sunflower Goes to Masdar: Energy Innovations announced that it has signed a contract to provide its “Sunflower” concentrator photovoltaic system for installation in Masdar City, near Abu Dhabi. PV-tech.org

It was an eye-opener to see a presentation from Foster at the World Architecture Festival and realise just how far on the construction of Masdar, the sustainable city in Abu Dhabi, is. They showed construction shots which show a real city taking place, and the first buildings will be occupied by the end of this year.

They also made it clear how much of a laboratory the city will be – essential to deal with the question of whether it would have been greener not to build at all. There are lots of sensible reasons for raising the building on a podium, with transport underneath, but it will be interesting to see how they manage to avoid it becoming the world´s largest, and most sordid, undercroft.

Construction is all lightweight. Apparently in deserts thermal mass is only effective if buildings are shaded all day. Otherwise there is not a long enough period of night cooling to dissipate the heat that has built up during the day.

Companies like Applied Materials (s AMAT) and Oerlikon are building businesses out of selling so-called “turnkey” (ready to use) thin-film solar manufacturing equipment to would-be solar developers. The idea is that instead of developing the technology itself, a solar maker can just buy the gear and start churning out panels with relative ease. But the reality is, it’s not always that easy.

Masdar PV, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy initiative, delivered its first thin-film panels from its factory in Ichtershausen, Germany, this week using an Applied Materials SunFab line, but according to CEO Rainer Gegenwart, the line wasn’t exactly plug and play. Instead — at least initially — Masdar PV ended up with a lot of broken glass.

Glass has to be properly treated in order to avoid chips and damage to its edges that could render it unusable for solar panels, and handling it proved a real challenge. As Gegenwart noted, while Applied and Oerlikon come from the semiconductor and display industries, which makes them very good at large-area coating machines, that doesn’t necessarily give them expertise in packaging PV panels.

Based on its own solar production expertise, Masdar PV attempted to improve the line when it placed its order by modifying some of the processes and switching out some of the machines with others, he said. If it had it to do over again, Masdar PV would change even more of the components than it actually did initially, he said. “AMAT, as well as Oerlikon, are not shipping ‘turnkey’ because that means the product line [arrives and just] starts,” Gegenwart said.

It’s also not clear that Applied Materials and Oerlikon are saving their customers significant cash. Oerlikon in July announced technology that could bring costs down to $1.20 per watt, although it’s shooting to cut that to less than $1 per watt. But First Solar (s FSLR) has already managed to lower its manufacturing costs to 85 cents per watt, although to be fair, the company’s also been producing for a longer time and at larger volumes. “They have not proven it’s much cheaper to do turnkey,” Gegenwart said. “We expect Applied Materials and Oerlikon to work much closer with their customers to make both sides more successful.”

Despite all of that, Genewart said Masdar PV doesn’t regret buying lines from Applied Materials: “It was a real advantage for the industry that equipment suppliers are offering complete equipment lines,” he said. Masdar PV expects its new factory to produce 3 MW of panels by the end of the year, most of which are already sold. While the company didn’t disclose the annual capacity of the plant, it said last year that its first two factories would have a combined initial capacity of 210 megawatts.

Masdar PV plans to start shipping panels to Abu Dhabi this year, with the first Abu Dhabi installation using its panels expected to be completed this winter, and hopes to ship its first panels to North America next year, Gegenwart said. The company is already building a sales and customer support team in Abu Dhabi to help develop the market, which it believes will take off in the next couple of years. And it’s started construction on its second plant, also in Abu Dhabi, although operations could be delayed at that plant depending on the market, Gegenwart said. Masdar PV is taking a wait-and-see approach in the U.S., however. It plans to evaluate the market in order to determine whether to build a factory there in 2010 and 2011.

IRENA, la International Renewable Energy Agency, se constituyó en Bonn el 26 de enero de 2.009. En junio de este mismo año, en la conferencia de los 137 países miembros que tuvo lugar en Sharm el Sheikh (Egipto) se acordó que la sede se IRENA se estableciese en Abu Dhabi, aceptando así la oferta de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos de conceder una sede permanente para la organización sin coste alguno ad eternum, además de una subvención de US $ 136 millones.

Pero a nuestros efectos lo que más interesa es la nueva sede de IRENA en sí. El edificio en que se asentará la organización se encuentra en construcción, según proyecto de AS+GG, estudio fundado en Chicago por Adrian Smith y Gordon Gill hace tres años. Ambos han trabajado previamente en Skidmore, Owings and Merrill –SOM-. Smith con un largo historial de casi 25 años en esa firma y uno de los grandes expertos mundiales en torres superaltas, ha sido responsable desde SOM, entre otros, del proyecto de la Burj Tower de Dubai –hotel más residencial-, que con sus 334.000 m2 y 818 metros de altura es la estructura más alta del mundo.

Burj Dubai, Room at the Top

Pearl River Tower, sede de Chinese Tobacco

Pues bien, Smith y Gill se marchan de SOM, fundan AS+GG y se concentran en inmuebles y construcciones de alta eficiencia energética como la visión principal de su nuevo estudio. Con la sede de IRENA en Masdar (Abu Dhabi), el edificio no es ya que sea autosuficiente, sino que produce más energía de la que consume. Me imagino que el edificio está promovido bajo un principio de “cost is no object” y pretende ser una muestra del futuro de la conservación al integrarse como parte de la Masdar City, con la que el gobierno de UAE pretender liderar en este campo, al crear una ciudad que califican de “carbon neutral” y “zero waste”.

Aunque es probable que muchos de los principios de sostenibilidad que estos edificios demuestran sean difíciles de incorporar en el futuro inmediato a edificios de explotación comercial en alquiler multi-inquilino, sin duda nos enseñan el camino. La conciencia por la conservación está creciendo a pasos agigantados. Promotores, arquitectos e inversores, así como todas las empresas que de un modo u otro están en el sector de oficinas, van a tener que mantenerse rabiosamente al día, porque aquí el futuro se acerca más deprisa de lo que se aleja el pasado.

Sobre el Irena Masdar Headquarters. Cuenta con una superficie de 89.559 m2 en únicamente 8 alturas. Las claves del diseño son 11 conos para movimiento de aire, a través de los cuales el aire caliente del edificio se eleva hacia su parte alta, donde debe disiparse por la brisa. Ello crea unas superficies inferiores tipo “oasis” que han sido buscadas como homenaje a la tradición local. Unido a ello, todo el edificio incorpora una “sombrilla” que hace que el sol no incida directamente sobre la estructura del mismo y es soporte de una de las mayores plantas fotovoltaicas del mundo. El aire interior, que se enfría o calienta según lo necesario con intercambiadores de calor subterráneos y el aislamiento con una fachada de alta masa hacen el resto. El edificio presume de consumir un 70% menos de agua que un edificio de oficinas convencional clase A y ser el de menor consumo de agua de su clase en el mundo. En este pdf tienen la descripción completa del proyecto: http://www.smithgill.com/assets/files/masdar_portfolio_website2pdf.pdf

Produce más de lo que consume

Think of a world powered completely by renewable energies. You would commute to your job, work all day, and come home… doing this all without emitting a single bit of CO2. But, it wouldn’t be just you; it’s you, your boss, you co-workers, your friends, your parents, your children. Pshhh yeah right…..

No really! Ok, maybe not the whole world (YET!), but we’re all moving in that direction slowly. But  ‘Masdar’ an area in Dubai (ironically a leading supplier of oil) is leading the way. This nearly 2 square mile area, which is no where near completed, will be powered only by the sun, wind, and bio-fuels.

But, it will come at a cost. More than $15,000,000,000.00 (15 billion dollars) to make this city a reality… which would make up 60% of the U.S. Department of Energy’s budget (which is why they leave it up to the private sector).

However, they also don’t mention anything about the pollution they cause to make the ‘city’. Maybe it’s all offset or they’re keeping that on the DL.

From December 7 – 18, 2009, Copenhagen will host the UN Climate Change Conference where delegations from most of the industrialized nations will aim to piece together a global deal to coordinate efforts against climate change. It’s likely that much of the conference proceedings will focus on the industrialized world and the major economies’ ability to reduce greenhouse gasses. Granted the majority of greenhouse gasses come from the few industrialized nations, but there is still room for reform in environmental policies in the rest of the world.

Now, the Middle East hasn’t always been characterized as being on the leading edge of progressive environmental policies. Recently however, some notable investments in alternative energy and green projects has drawn much international praise to the region and will hopefully set a new direction in energy and environmental policies. Many of the countries in the Middle East have an abundance of capital given their large natural gas and oil reserves, and they’ve certainly gotten a dose of wisdom in realizing that their fossil fuels are finite. The region also has an overabundance of educated and entrepreneurial youth, many of whom seeking employment, this also provides a tremendous opportunity for private sector growth.

Near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, an impressive project is taking shape – Masdar City – the world’s first

The headquarters for Masdar City near Abu Dhabi will be an "energy positive" building - meaning it will actually feed energy back into the grid.

carbon neutral and zero-waste city. Since automobiles will not be allowed, residents will have to use the advanced public rail transportation system. Power for the city will come from a diverse combination of solar, geothermal, and wind sources along with the world’s largest hydrogen power plant.

Of course in the desert, a huge issue to tackle is the lack of fresh water – seems like they’ve got it figured out as well. They’ll be using solar powered de-salinization methods with any remaining “gray water” to be used for crops and other irrigation. So not only are you getting water from the sea, you’re using it to grow crops on the spot AND reduce the carbon emitted in transporting the veggies from remote farms. Not too shabby.

Masdar City will also host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency. With the first residential phase opening in late 2009, many have been critical of the project saying that it would only serve as a playground for the worlds wealthiest. There’s no doubt that the staggering $22 billion investment in the project is quite a bit of cash, but it may be just what’s needed to show the world that zero impact cities are possible.

It’d be great if everyone was able to put solar cells on their roof or have a mini wind-farm next to their olive tree orchard, but in this case if a project of this magnitude can become a model for investors and government agencies, that’s not a bad thing. Take the model and improve on it. The cost of technology will certainly come down with time, and just as mobile phones have become accessible in the developing world perhaps one day cities and villages in less affluent nations will not only provide sustenance for their people, but do it with a minimal environmental impact.

The investment in sustainable energy sources has not been limited to the oil-wealthy GCC countries. Jordan’s new energy strategy calls for an increase in renewables as the source of energy in the next 10 years – currently 1% of energy used to 10% in 2020. The Jordanian government is also considering legislation that offers tax credits for consumers and businesses that purchase energy saving products. Lastly, the government has set up a Energy Fund exclusively designed to invest in clean energy facilities.

Egypt plans to utilize European investment to build the largest wind farm project in Africa and the Middle East

Outside of Cairo, near a small town called Zafarana, a massive wind farm project is taken shape as the largest of it’s kind in Africa and the Middle East. The site, currently generating 360 megawatts (MW) with plans to grow to around 545 MW, is a collaborative project that has harnessed European capital and invested it into the most populous Arab nation. The Egyptian government’s goal is to have 12% of it’s energy come from wind sources, and 20% overall from renewables. It should be noted however that Egypt is no stranger to renewables, hydroelectric power from the Aswan High-Dam and biomass currently provide significant energy resources.

No doubt there is still a long way to go in reducing the Middle East’s carbon footprint. It is however a giant leap forward to have this kind of investment and ongoing interest in renewable energy given the region’s other significant challenges.

Le paradoxe des environnementalistes que nous sommes est que l’on souhaite tous vivre à la campagne entourés d’une nature intacte, alors que d’un point de vue purement ‘spatial’, la surface de la terre ne serait pas assez grande si les 6.5 milliards que nous sommes voulaient tous vivre entourés de champs. Il va donc falloir que certains d’entre nous acceptent de s’entasser  les uns sur les autres. D’où le concept de ville durable après celui de ville insoutenable (si l’on pense au développement des banlieues, des réseaux routiers à l’intérieur des centre-villes, ou encore pire, des bidonvilles qui se multiplient autour des mégalopoles sans eaux potables, sans réseau d’égout).

La nécessité de penser de nouvelles stratégies de construction des espaces urbains devient dès lors nécessaire. L’urbanisme durable est une nouvelle tendance, qui, en travaillant sur la forme et l’organisation urbaine,  propose des pistes pour diminuer les conséquences négatives de l’urbanisation et au final rendre les villes plus durables.

L’urbanisme durable ne se résume  pas, comme on l’entend souvent, à des constructions « écolos ».

En réalité, pour être qualifié de durable, l’urbanisme se doit de considérer les trois sphères du développement durable: l’économie, le social et l’environnement.

• Sur le plan social, il s’agit tout d’abord de promouvoir la justice sociale et le bien-être des citadins. Les inégalités sociales au sein des villes sont en effet parfois très importantes, plus même qu’entre des pays en voie de développement et des pays développés. Ceci signifie notamment que l’urbanisme durable doit offrir une qualité de vie agréable aux habitants, renforcer la cohésion et le lien social, garantir l’égalité d’accès aux biens et services à tous. La gestion des espaces publics, la promotion d’une mixité des activités et des habitants sont des exemples de stratégies pouvant être développées dans ce domaine.
• En termes économiques maintenant, on sait que la concurrence entre les villes est très élevée en ce qui concerne par exemple l’attractivité pour la localisation d’entreprises, ou le positionnement sur le marché touristique. L’urbanisme durable doit donc offrir les caractéristiques nécessaires à la ville pour « marquer des points » au niveau mondial et ainsi assurer une croissance économique performante. Renforcer l’identité des villes en revalorisant les particularités individuelles est notamment une stratégie de l’urbanisme durable pour renforcer leur « image de marque». Mais les ressources ainsi générées par les villes  doivent être équitablement réparties au sein de la ville (entre les différents groupes) et au niveau régional (équilibre entre centre et périphérie).
• Enfin, sur le plan environnemental, la gestion durable des ressources naturelles doit être garantie. Pour ce faire, trois domaines sont fréquemment mis en évidence : la gestion de l’eau, la gestion de l’énergie et la gestion des déchets. De nombreuses stratégies (densification le long des axes de transports publics, création de corridors urbains, mixité fonctionnelle, promotion des transports publics et des énergies renouvelables, construction écologique, etc.) existent dans ce domaine et des outils tels que l’ACV peuvent également être utilisés pour évaluer l’impact des matériaux envisagés et des activités.

On le voit, l’urbanisme durable est complexe et doit faire face à des défis de taille, sur des thèmes très divers.

La principale contrainte que rencontre l’urbanisme durable, est l’existence d’un cadre bâti préalable. En effet, dans les cas de constructions entièrement nouvelles (Ecoquartiers de Bedzed à Londres, de Freiburg en Brisgau, de la ville de Masdar aux Emirats Arabes Unis), la mise en place de stratégies d’urbanisme durable n’est certes pas simple, mais les planificateurs sont beaucoup plus libres qu’au sein d’un cadre bâti existant.

Même si ces projets, notamment Masdar (le plus grand projet du genre : une ville de 50′000 habitants), sont la plupart du temps très bien menés, le véritable défi réside donc dans la « durabilisation » des villes déjà existantes. Il est en effet autrement plus compliqué de s’attaquer à une ville telle que Bombay, où plus de la moitié des habitants vit actuellement dans des bidonvilles illégaux, ou à Houston, dont la construction est entièrement pensée en fonction de la voiture individuelle.

La modification de ces structures, autant physiques que sociales et politico-juridiques n’est pas aisée, et la durée d’un mandat politique ne suffit  souvent pas à introduire des modifications en profondeur. Néanmoins, sur ce plan, des outils existent également, comme l’Agenda 21, qui se veut un outil participatif au niveau local et qui a pour but de fournir un cadre ainsi que des lignes d’actions directrices pour l’application de nouvelles politiques urbanistiques.

Lorsqu’il peut être appliqué, l’urbanisme durable se révèle alors un formidable moteur pour l’innovation dans des domaines aussi divers que l’architecture, la logistique, les nouvelles technologies, la communication et la démocratie participative et rien que pour cela il mérite d’être encouragé au niveau des Etats. Le partage d’expériences et de conseils entre les villes au niveau international, grâce à une plateforme globale, serait également très profitable, notamment pour les pays en voie de développement, dont les gouvernements régionaux et nationaux manquent parfois d’outils et de savoir-faire pour entreprendre des démarches si importantes.

Pour en savoir plus :

-           L’Observatoire universitaire de la Ville et du Développement durable à Lausanne, http://www.unil.ch/ouvdd, publie régulièrement sur le thème de l’urbanisme durable et ses avancées.

Le site du chercheur William McDonough recèle d’illustrations (principalement aux USA) et perspectives concernant l’urbanisme durable : http://www.mcdonough.com/writings_urbanism.htm

Masdar  مصدر signifie « source, origine » en arabe. C’est le nom attribué à la nouvelle ville « entièrement durable » dont la construction a débuté dans l’Etat d’Abou Dhabi, aux Emirats arabes unis en février 2008. Sa construction devrait durer jusqu’en 2018 et elle devra alors accueillir 50′000 personnes, ainsi que de nombreuses entreprises, universités et centres de recherche.

Le but de ce projet est de créer une ville sans émissions de CO2, sans déchets et sans voitures. Pour mériter le titre de ville écologique, le projet se doit de prendre en compte les différents thèmes de l’urbanisme dit durable sur le plan environnemental:

• Transports : la ville sera dotée d’un système innovateur de monorail souterrain, équipé de petites cabines de 1 à 10 personnes, pouvant être appelée par pression sur un bouton et dont la destination désirée sera indiquée par le voyageur. Ceci a l’avantage de combiner la liberté offerte par les transports individuels aux avantages écologiques des transports en commun. Ce système sera également utilisé pour le transport de marchandises et l’acheminement des déchets.
• Énergie : Elle proviendra en grande majorité de centrales photovoltaïques et le reste sera issu de la conversion des déchets, ainsi que d’énergie éolienne.
• Architecture : La construction des bâtiments utilisera toutes les technologies les plus innovantes pour diminuer la consommation d’énergie. A l’échelle de la ville, l’architecture compacte sera privilégiée, avec des constructions souterraines et élevées. Les rues seront étroites ce qui devrait leur permettre de conserver la fraîcheur.
• Eau : enjeu important, étant donné que la ville sera située en plein désert. Elle proviendra principalement d’une usine de désalinisation de l’eau de mer pour l’eau de consommation. Tandis que les espaces verts seront arrosés à partir d’eaux usées.

La prise en compte de tous ces aspects a permis au projet d’être reconnu autant par les gouvernements que par des organisations de protection de l’environnement comme le WWF.

Les entreprises sont fortement encouragées à s’y établir. C’est ce que propose d’ailleurs l’association Swiss Village dont Science & Environnement est membre depuis août 2008. Le quartier Swiss Village sera situé au centre de Masdar et (du design aux produits et services commercialisés) sera « made in Switzerland ». Les entreprises pourront ainsi bénéficier d’un accès au marché de la région du Golfe, mais tireront également profit de tout le développement de savoirs et techniques liés au développement durable, comme le stipule l’association:

“Being located in the Swiss Village offers Swiss companies several advantages: they gain an ideal business hub for opening up the UAE and other Gulf regions. At the same time, they benefit from a gain in reputation by participating in a pioneering project in the field of sustainability and they benefit from the know-how and from the publicity that will result from this leading location for Clean Tech & Services.”[1]

L’association compte actuellement 60 membres.

Pour plus d’informations :

http://www.swiss-village.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=3

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] http://www.swiss-village.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=6

Una città che non utilizza il petrolio ubicata in uno degli Stati famoso per esserne uno dei maggiori esportatori al mondo? Gli Emirati Arabi, nonostante la crisi economica si sia fatta sentire anche da quelle parti, costringendo gli sceicchi a rimandare alcuni progetti avveniristici, non smettono di stupire e se esiste un luogo in cui la fantascienza può trasformarsi in realtà, beh, è questo.

Masdar (sorgente in arabo) City, sorgerà entro il 2015 (stima vagamente ottimistica) in mezzo al deserto, a pochi chilometri da Abu Dhabi.

Continua a leggere “Masdar City: la città del futuro”

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) prototype for the planned city of Masdar

A link to Hammersmith’s latest thought piece exploring the opportunities of embedding logic and sensors into vehicles, as well as using social media to enhance the driving experience – from Trapster’s wiki geotagging of speed traps, to the potential to embed sensors in public parking spaces so that drivers can scan for open spaces, to combining DPW and police news feeds into GPS devices so that they provide useful, real-time route information:

http://thehammersmithgroup.com/images/reports/networked_vehicles.pdf

This piece focused more on personal vehicles rather than commercial ones – that would be a piece on its own.

Feel free to share thoughts, as always.

When Daimler AG (s DAI) took a nearly 10 percent stake in electric car startup Tesla Motors two months ago, the German automaker had other plans brewing for the investment. This morning, Daimler says it has sold 40 percent of its equity stake to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based investment group Aabar Investments as part of what the companies describe as the “first joint strategic project” in a larger scheme “to leverage their shared interest in the development of low-CO2 drive systems.”

According to Daimler, it never planned to keep the entire 10 percent Tesla stake for long. “Daimler and Aabar both wanted to invest jointly in Tesla” when the investment and battery deal was finalized in May. (Tesla will supply battery tech for at least the first generation of electric Smart cars from Daimler, and the two companies will collaborate on future battery systems.) The state-controlled Aabar, which bought a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler this past March to become the auto group’s largest shareholder, did not at first join the Tesla deal because “clarification of contractual details” was needed, Daimler says in its announcement this morning.

As we wrote earlier this year, oil-rich Abu Dhabi has launched a big push for renewable energy and other clean technologies — notably through the development group Masdar. But the gulf state still lacks much of the research and development infrastructure needed to fuel its own cleantech industry. So until new programs like the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (founded with MIT) help to change that, top dollar can be expected to flow from Abu Dhabi to Western firms, such as Tesla, for precious cleantech IP.

Graphics credit Aabar Investments, Tesla Motors

On the Tribute
I admit that a side of me was leery about the Michael Jackson tribute being an out-of-control sideshow – thus am glad that didn’t happen, so here are a few thoughts.

Positives: Very well done planned, dignified, balanced blend of tribute and memorial, focused on the good, contained many great statements I wish I would have written down because they were applicable and meaningful to all

Negatives: I can’t help but wonder how much was designed with future DVD sales in mind.

Future: I can’t wait to see Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) vote on the mentioned House resolution.

On Odd Timing
On the day after the Jackson tribute, I saw this headline: Thin-looking Kim Jong II makes rare appearance at memorial

On Classic Dignity
Although many reality-show-based attitudes promote the contrary, many people still admire, seek, and promote dignity. This recent David Brooks column is worth reading.

On Twitter
Twitter was in Cincinnati’s news twice this morning. The first about a city council member sending tweets during a council meeting, and secondly, Bengals WR and self-promoting egotist Chad Ocho Cinco desiring to send tweets in team meetings, during games, and at halftime. To both I say this: Read the Brooks column and do your job.

On an Interesting Artist
For those enjoying art, Stephanie Clair’s works caught my eye, thanks to Maxi at Ovah’ Coffee.  This link shows Stephanie’s work, and the Artists link on the left sidebar leads viewers to other artists. Enjoy.

On Evolution and Religion Journey
I continue to read interesting information and learning about this subject. I’m currently reading by Nature, Reality, and the Sacred by Langdon Gilkey. Now deceased, Gilkey was a Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and was an expert witness at the historic evolution-creationism in education trial in Arkansas.

On Mickelson Prayers
Thoughts and prayers to Phil Mickelson and his family as they also deal with his mother’s breast cancer.

On Something to Ponder
Not long ago I purchased a book light for $4, which included 2 batteries. Replacement batteries cost $6.

On an Ambitious Energy Project
Masdar is a planned city located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates that is based on renewable resources and zero-carbon, zero-waste technologies. To stimulate thoughts, watch the 2-minute+ video below. To learn more, use this link to CNN Search Results that include many interesting resources, including one from GE.

By Tom Ashby

Choosing Abu Dhabi for the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) required a leap of faith. In terms of transformational decisions, it was on a par with the Government’s decision to kick-start a renewable energy project from scratch with a $15 billion investment in Masdar. But then, new energy technologies have always involved such leaps of faith, and Abu Dhabi will now be at the centre of one of the world’s most important energy policy and technology research projects as it enters a decisive phase.

The pace of growth in renewable energy, after decades of disappointment, now has many energy market observers raising an eyebrow. Governments from Europe to China have announced plans to derive a fifth of their power from renewable sources within a decade. Even Washington has a green guru at the helm of its energy policy. The cost of renewables is dropping fast, and efficiency is increasing. Many solar and wind technologies have passed the “tipping point” and entered mainstream commercial development. The optimism surrounding green energy contrasts with forecasts for global demand for oil, which is now expected to stay flat for five years thanks in part to the success of renewables.

Taken at its most basic level, the Irena HQ will be a fascinating architectural enterprise. The building will have to conform to the stringent requirements of its landlords in Masdar City, who have set a goal of zero carbon and zero waste. In that sense, the building will embody the principles that Irena pursues and represent a milestone on the road to a sustainable urban future. But for Abu Dhabi the choice means so much more than just another building. Irena will mesh into an emerging new energy research and technology hub taking shape in Masdar City, which is under construction next to Abu Dhabi International Airport. Building is already under way at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Mist), where emissions from the construction and materials are offset by solar power generated from a field of photovoltaic panels next door. GE, the American conglomerate, has already booked its place as anchor tenant of Masdar’s technology park. Irena’s arrival will bring with it funding, with a $50 million research budget from the Government. But perhaps more important, Irena’s 120 staff of researchers and policy makers will act as a major pull for other commercial tenants, whose activities will ultimately determine the destiny of the global push to sustainable energy sources.

“What,” you might ask, “will this new agency actually do?” Its name sounds like a derivative of the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based energy adviser to 28 industrialised nations, but Irena could not be more different. The IEA was created in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo as a counterweight to Opec, creating one of the great institutional confrontations of the postwar global economy. The IEA represented energy importers, and oversaw the build-up of huge oil reserves in consuming countries to act as a counterweight to Opec’s oil supply weapon. Irena, by contrast, is a truly multilateral organisation, designed to take the geopolitics out of energy innovation. Its main challenge will be to stimulate research, development and deployment of renewable energy, and particularly to help poor nations to start on the road towards sustainable energy consumption.

The Masdar initiative has already taken steps down this road. The institute has signed alliances with the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and the Fraunhoffer Gesselschaft, and graduates have begun doctoral research even before it has a permanent home. On the commercial side, Masdar has signed contracts to advise state oil companies in Abu Dhabi, Nigeria and Bahrain on carbon mitigation, illustrating the hunger for such intelligence in the developing world. The growth in renewables has surprised many people who were used to watching these technologies fail. But today there is a step change in the commercial application of renewables – from solar to wind – that is driving costs down to compete on equal terms with conventional power from natural gas or coal. At the same time, many governments are beginning to reexamine the concept of grid parity, and incorporating the hidden costs of carbon fuels into the energy price. Irena will act as a thought-pool for policy makers to redesign the architecture of government energy policy and pricing. Many energy technologies may be nearing maturity, but there is a big role for government intervention and regulation, and this is where Irena comes in.

Lastly, for Abu Dhabi, the addition of this avante-garde agency is an endorsement for a new city that is taking shape before our eyes. Anyone who has driven from Abu Dhabi to Dubai recently would have witnessed the phenomenal pace of development taking place around the airport. The new bridges across the highway leading to Yas and Sadiyaat Islands are almost complete. Raha Beach is fast turning into a waterfront city of apartment buildings, new villas are sprouting up near the golf course and the intriguing hotel at Yas Island is taking shape around the Formula One race track. The next phase will be the development of a new capital district, incorporating a diplomatic zone, next to Masdar City. Irena may be blazing a trail for other international institutions looking for a new home in the sun.

tashby@thenational.ae

Re do Pakistan Solar Power Stations

Artist; Marisa Rehana (Samiullah) Mann

There are many ideas that can transform Pakistan and one of them is to envisage solar power stations. They could provide clean energy that will never cease and allow all Pakistanis to have a good standard of living. Solar Power Stations are to be contrasted with solar panels that are good on a local or individual level, (CSP) Concentrated Solar Power, as they are known are for powering industry, transport and buildings. They would take a large start up cost but that could be loaned from World Organisations or countries such as the Arab States. Already some are planned; the far sighted Abu Dhabi is building a Solar City at Masdar and CSP plants are planned in Morocco, Libya and Algeria. A unified grid would be needed, known as (HVDC) high voltage direct current, to enable the power to be circulated; excess can be stored in melted salts. My painting is of a Dish power station. There are also other ones including a Power tower, parabolic trough and Fresnel mirror system.

CSP is a particularly good technology for hot desert regions as the heat gathered from the sun using mirrors is concentrated and used to power a steam turbine thus creating the electricity. Desalination plants could be set up and also powered near the coast to provide water for the station giving water and shade as waste products. It may be possible to thus also grow vegetables and fruits around the plants.

Other systems could also be fed into the grid; hot rock, wind, HEP and tidal turbines. This will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air so as to help global warming, as otherwise deserts will increase, and without the set up and decommissioning costs of nuclear power.

This sounds like a story but it is only for us to open our eyes and look, use our brains and work together and this concept together with my other to help maintain the Indus River are 2 ideas envisaged for Pakistan

Sources

http://www.desertec.org/concept.html – 28k

http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/ – 23k

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Mediterranean_Renewable_Energy_Cooperation – 59k –

http://www.desertec-iran.org/

http://www.desertec-india.org.in/

Time magazine February 25 2008

International Climate Forum

London June14 2008

www.campaigncc.org

“Green grid”, New Scientist 14 March 09

http://www.openhydro.com/technology.html

P249-256, Global Fever, How to treat climate Change, William H. Calvin 2008, University of Chicago Press

Masdar ist eine geplante Ökostadt in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten (VAE). Wie alle Vorhaben in den VAE kennzeichnet sich auch Masdar durch eine Reihe von Superlativen. Das Nachhaltigkeitsprojekt soll zu einer CO2-neutralen Stadt und annähernd abfallfrei werden. Die Stadt wird autofrei konzipiert und dient als Labor “zur Klärung der Frage, ob der Mensch grundsätzlich in der Lage ist, sich auf die ökologischen Erfordernisse einzustellen, oder sich der nachhaltigen Lebensweise verweigert” (Wikipedia).

Das Projekt wurde 2006 begonnen, hat ein Budget von 15 Milliarden Euro und soll ab dem Jahre 2016 etwa 50.000 Einwohner sowie 1.500 Unternehmen und eine Universität beherbergen, die sich ausschließlich der Forschung auf dem Gebiet der erneuerbaren Energien widmet.

Die CO2-Neutralität soll unter anderem durch ein CDM-Projekt finanziert werden: Die Emissionen in der Planstadt Masdar City werden zu Zwecken der Zertifizierung denjenigen Emissionen gegenüber gestellt, die eine Stadt dieser Größenordnung in den VAE typischerweise verursacht. Mit jährlichen CO2-Emissionen von knapp 38 Tonnen pro Einwohner zählen die VAE zu den Ländern mit den höchsten CO2-Verbräuchen weltweit. Das Einsparpotenzial ist also beträchtlich.

Links: Hier geht es zur offiziellen Website der geplanten Stadt, hier zu einer Fotoserie auf FlickR.

Exhibition review: Green Architecture for the Future in Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Recently, I’ve come across a lot of talk about transforming cities into green spaces. Not long ago, I wrote about an exhibition in London Building Centre called London Yields: Urban Agriculture. In the article, I speculated on (and modified) a concept first coined by Salman Rushdie, namely tropicalizing cities.

Ecoboulevards (photo: una ballena de seis ojos)

This exhibition also takes on the concept of tropicalization, suggesting how to modify our surroundings towards something greener. Some plans are already under execution, while others are mere scetches. A group called Ecosistema Urbano proposed an interesting (and fully executable) plan as how to increase the amount of trees downtown. As a part of this plan, titled Ecoboulevards, a meeting plaza surrounded by a structure of trees giving shade was presented. Here, community issues can be discussed under trees away from the heat. Simple and interesting democracy/sustainability project.

Some plans were small, others big. Some artsy, others down-to-earth. A common theme was new architectural or city planning solutions to managing energy, water and other resources sustainably. I, as a non-professional, did not understand all of the fine technical details. Nevertheless, I found reading about the technology very inspiring! I was reminded of the Eiffel Tower – made from cast iron, it was an expensive construction with a lot of flaws, but it foreshadowed the era of steel

Transport vehicle in Masdar City (photo:tuexperto_com5)

fortified concrete. Perhaps some of these constructions may be remembered as the start of a greener era? Let us hope these expensive pioneer projects will pave way to what will be mainstream in the future. One very interesting project is the Masdar City, a sustainable carbon neutral city currently being built in Abu Dhabi by Foster architects.

I forgot to bring my camera along, but it was ok, since a great portion of the exhibition consisted of excerpts from the book The Endless City (Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic, Phaidon) I already have at home. Both this part of the exhibition and parts of the book were a tad disappointing for hanba’s scientist-wired brain. Glimpses of data are presented in a haphazard manner, throwing a figure here, another there in flashy orange writing: “There were 547 million Europeans in 1950” or “121 buildings over eight storeys in 1980 in Shanghai”. It is hard to draw accurate conclusions or predictions from this mess of data. I guess it’s like this so the people would get ANY glimpse of the data. Seeing as percent figures aren’t so sexy to discuss, I guess it’s better to tread on a floor where one can hop over bright colored text stating: “60,981 days to the end of gas”, then to have the data not catch any form of attention at all.

Just as interesting as it is to see the green visions, it is fascinating to see the flip side of the coin. Stefano Boeri decribes in “Green dystopias”, three possible negative scenarios we need to prepare for. One is how to maintain the balance of wild nature and tamed parks if we turn more and more of the city into wildlife. Also, if we turn city into agricultural land, we should make sure that this land will not be “monopolized” for one crop or company. I was reminded of BLDGBLOG’s comment about urban agriculture and disease control (talking about the swine flu); when you mix people and cattle, diseases may catch along.

One of my favorites was United Bottle Project by Instant Architects, featuring water bottles you could recycle just like normal. At the event of a catastrophe, however, you could first use the bottles for clean water and then fill the discarded bottles with sand and use them as building blocks for houses. Very creative.

All in all, the exhibition was  very thought provoking. In fact, since I came home I’ve looked into changing my electricity contract into a green one…

I’d like to finish with a quote on the wall in Louisiana by Stefan Behling, Foster architects: “Consumption is a matter of needs, and needs depend on design. Your need for petrol depends on the design of your car, a need of a car, in turn, depends on how the city you live in is designed. So if you can change the design of your city, you can change your needs and in the end, your consumption.”

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See also: New York’s High Line park - a green park that has just opened http://www.thehighline.org/

Upcoming: Since some readers have (with full right) been confused about the term “pink, saccharine architecture”, the next post will provide a definition for this concept. Newly built libraries in a Swedish city will be used as an example…

Abu Dhabi’s ambitious alternative energy project Masdar is holding a pitch to find a new creative agency after taking the surprise decision to move on from the recently appointed BPG Advertising.

Dubai-based BPG secured the creative account for the multi-billion dollar green energy initiative in November last year in a hard won multi-agency pitch that took place over a six-week period.

Mystery surrounds the decision to curtail the relationship after a mere six months, with neither party able to shed light on the rethink, although it is understood that the contractual notice period has been honoured and the company has decided to move on.

Zarmineh Rab, corporate communications manager for Masdar, said that the decision was in-line with the procedures of the company: “It’s a process that we follow that is part of our procurement process,” she said. With reference to BPG, she would only comment: “They were appointed for the interim process and now we’re going through a process whereby we will appoint an agency.”

Commenting at the time of the business win, Avi Bhojani, CEO of the BPG Group, appeared unaware that their appointment was considered by Masdar as a temporary measure. “I think our passion for the project was a key factor in our success. Our values and expertise are consistent with the local, regional and international targets of Masdar. We are also perceived as an easy agency to deal with.”

Masdar was launched by the WWF and The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company in January last year and will be the first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city on the planet, eventually housing 50,000 residents.
Starcom manages Masdar’s media planning and buying.