Environmentalism has taken massive leaps and bounds forward over the past decade. From the standardization of biological and hydrological fuel sources to the popularization of solar systems to the introduction of minimal waste systems, the green movement has never been stronger. A new project in the United Arab Emirates, however, seeks to put to shame every attempt at conservation in human history by building an entire city that not only runs entirely on solar power, but also is waste-neutral, sustainable, and creates zero 
carbon emissions. This is called the Masdar Project and it may well determine the future of urban planning in the developed world. Plans to host the International Renewable Energy Agency, or IREA, will allow the city to spread its influence and ideas across the face of the planet.
The United Arab Emirates has long been a pioneer of modernity, boasting cities such as Dubai with innovative technology and architecture without the sprawl and waste typical of many Western city centers. Due to the nation’s location in a desert with little natural features, a wealth of oil, and proximity to the Gulf of Arabia, the chance for the Masdar City Project to succeed likely could not be higher in any other nation. Receiving more than three hundred sunny days per year, the United Arab Emirates can not only power all major functions through solar cells, but can also draw all the water it requires from the Gulf with desalinization plants, rather than tap into non renewable groundwater sources. What’s more, the area has almost no geological disruptions that make city planning frustrating or even impossible, allowing the engineers to construct the city on the equivalent of a blank canvas. All types of sustainable business will not doubt prosper and become a beacon to what is possible.
The Masdar Project has been the brainchild of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, or ADFEC, an Emirates based conglomerate that provides renewable power to a percentage of the population. The designing of the city, in turn, has been hired out to British architecture and design firm called Foster and Partners, a world renowned firm that has built every structure imaginable, from sports stadiums to suspension bridges to universities and even the Berlin Free University Library featured on this site. Specializing in modern style glass and steel construction, Foster and Partners plan to complete the city planning in the United Arab Emirates by the conclusion of the decade. Habitable portions of the city may be completed in only a few years, allowing select citizens to live and begin their Masdar carers shortly. Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill will design the central city headquarters.
The project began with speculative ventures and rounding up investors in the early part of the new millennium. Actual design commenced in 2006, with initial construction soon after. It was believed that a majority of the city could be completed and inhabited by 2009, but the ongoing financial crises that has impacted most of the global corporations funding the venture has limited development and pushed back the date to approximately 2015. It is believed, however,
that the economic slow down may have lessened the cost of constructing the city — initially thought to be approximately twenty two billion American dollars, that figure has fallen to around nineteen to twenty.
Downtown Masdar City should hold about fifty thousand persons and fifteen hundred sustainable businesses, many of whom specializing in green, renewable energy. A further fifty thousand people will be able to live in the suburbs of the city, commuting via light rail to. The entire city has been built without plans for passenger cars to eliminate carbon footprints, so that transportation will be entirely public (such as a bus system and subway) with individual rapid transit for smaller purposes. Highways and railways will connect Masdar to outlying cities and other nodes of trade, but the lack of cars within the city has made the streets much smaller and more compact. What’s more, a massive wall on the outskirts will keep desert winds from blowing through the area.
The Masdar City Project has an extraordinarily ambitious scope and purpose, but has the potential to revolutionize human habitation and halt or even reverse environmental trends from contemporary cities. Masdar careers will attract the best and brightest in the region as being involved in not only sustainable business but an entire sustainable city is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Expected to be up and running in approximately ten years, it should prove to be an incredible role model for renewable, clean energy and how it can power an entire metropolis.
