Year: 2008  

Designer: Foster+Partners

Location: United Arab Emirates

Introduction: Masdar literally translates as ‘the source’ in Arabic, and the city’s goal is to be the world’s most sustainable city, with aspirations of ‘zero carbon’ and ‘zero waste’. But by 2016 its managers determined that the city would never reach net-zero carbon levels.

The master plan incorporates point-to-point transportation by the means of Personalized Rapid Transit, the city’s subterranean electric driverless cars. A large 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant is built to provide electricity for active cooling systems, artificial lighting, and desalination of ocean water. Water is conserved by the use of high efficiency appliances, water tariffs, and smart water meters, and all wastewater is supposed to be recycled. A 45-meter Teflon-coated wind tower measures the city’s energy consumption, and an interactive umbrella feature called ‘Petals from Heaven’ open, provide shade, and capture energy during daylight hours.

 Masdar is powered by a 22-hectare (54-acre) field of 87,777 solar panels with additional panels on roofs. There are no light switches or water taps in the city; movement sensors control lighting and water to cut electricity and water consumption by 51 and 55 percent respectively. Gerard Evenden, the lead architect, says that the original plan for Masdar called for powering the entire city through on-site methods such as rooftop solar panels. He said,

“When we started this project, nobody had really looked at doing projects of this scale. Then you realise it’s much more efficient to build your solar field on the ground in the middle of the desert. You can send a man to brush them off every day, rather than having to access everyone’s buildings individually, and you can make sure that they are running at their absolute peak. It’s much better than putting them on every building in the city.”

Blowing sand has been a problem for its solar panels, so Masdar has been working with other companies to engineer surfaces with pores smaller than sand particles to stop them from sticking on the panels. Scientists at the Masdar Institute are also working on coatings that repel sand and bacteria for use on solar panels and in other applications.