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22 Sep 2008

Khaled AwadInterview with Khaled Awad, Director, Property Development, Masdar

At Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2007, Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) introduced the Masdar City development which is the physical component of the Masdar Initiative. The Masdar Initiative objectives include diversifying the Abu Dhabi economy with a focus on renewable energies and emerging as the global hub for cleantech education, research and development. Masdar has been partnering with global leaders and innovative companies who are pioneers in the clean tech industry.

Masdar City, master-planned by Foster + Partners, is a 6 million square metre sustainable development that uses traditional Arabian planning principles combined with sustainable building technologies.  The overall objective of Masdar City is to create a fully sustainable city which incorporates the highest quality of life with the lowest environmental footprint. Masdar city will be carbon-neutral, use only renewable energy sources, produce zero waste and be the world’s first city without vehicles powered by fossil fuels.

The City is located in Abu Dhabi and  is  projected to have a total development budget of $24billion phased over an 8 year development timeline.  The city will have an advanced transportation system consisting of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and a Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system. The PRT system is an individual point-to-point mobility solution, with 83 stations, that carries residents throughout the city. It has direct links to the adjacent Abu Dhabi International Airport, surrounding developments and will have connected access to Abu Dhabi City.

Masdar City will generate over 200 MW of renewable energy supply, with over 170 MW coming from photovoltaic (PV) installations throughout the development. It projects a +  70 % reduction in energy usagethan from typical construction. 60% of the water demand will be provided by recycled water which will be safe, cleaned to the highest levels and reliable for drinking, irrigation and reuse. The water will be managed on-site using advanced water and wastewater treatment schemes. All of the waste in Masdar City will be managed through an integrated, user-friendly, invisible and odourless system.

In addition, Masdar City has been designated as Abu Dhabi’s first Free Zone, creating a business and regulatory market for clean tech companies locating in the City.These clean tech companies will have access to a cluster of other clean tech companies,  skilled labour, regional markets, advanced green living and association with the Masdar brand.

Khaled Awad, Director of Property Development, Masdar City, discusses Masdar City’s contribution to sustainable urban design and development of new technologies.

Could you give an outline of the aims of Masdar City?

Masdar City is a carbon-neutral community. We are aiming to develop a unique clean tech cluster where companies and researchers from around the world could develop solutions to address climate change and global energy issues. The city itself will be developed in a way to reduce carbon emissions from its development, making it carbon-neutral. The whole city will be provided with renewable power which is not based on fossil fuels and also developing a transportation system that is free from fossil fuel.  In addition to that, all the materials used in the city will be accounted for and offset through the landscape and energy savings.  The city itself is a test bed for technologies from around the world and at the same time it will be the source of solutions for sustainability and advancing energy.

We will be using different sources of energy, including photovoltaics, solar thermal and thermal energy coming from sources such as waste. Thermal energy will be used for cooling the city and other sources of electricity for lighting etc. will be covered by the photovoltaics.  We will have more than 60 percent of the photovoltaics on roofs for power.

Who will occupy Masdar City?

Masdar City is trying to attract companies from different sectors focused around energy and sustainability. Most of the companies will come from the renewable energy sector, waste management, water and recycling, sustainable transportation, green and sustainable construction as well as biodiversity.  These are the key sectors we are trying to attract to come to the city and develop their businesses. People working in these companies will have preferential access to the residential units with. 50,000 residents will live in the city upon completion and up to 40,000 peoplewill commute daily. Initially we will only lease out space but we are exploring other options to lease out units in the next phases of development.  There are five main phases in Masdar City and we are currently in phase one which will be finished in mid 2011. The other phases will start sequentially and the city will be fully developed by 2016.  We are quickly running out of space for phase 1 due to unexpected demand from companies who want to be based here.

What will Masdar City’s transportation system incorporate?

The transportation system we are developing is a Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) system which consists of fully automated electric vehicles.  The entire city is raised on a podium so that pedestrians will have a free walking environment. The PRT system runs on the ground level below the podium. The PRT’s are like pods with four to six passenger capacity that move around the city among 83 strategically located stations. The PRT system is point-to-point and doesn’t stop for other passengers until you reach your final destination. We will also have a Light Rapid Transit (LRT) which connects directly to the Abu Dhabi airport, surrounding developments and will eventually link up to Abu Dhabi City.

Are you going to monetise carbon emissions?

The city is relying on carbon finance by monetising the amount of carbon credits that we will save and this is one of the basic reasons behind the feasibility of the city.  The city is expected to save or avoid at least a million tonnes of carbon emissions compared to any similar development in the region.  We would like to see all of these emissions monetised on a yearly basis.  This is part of the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism.

What is MIT’s involvement with Masdar City?

The Masdar Institute, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Science and Technology (MIT), will be the first building completed in August 2009. The Masdar Institute is an independent, not-for-profit, research-driven, graduate level institute. It offers Masters and PhD programs in science and engineering disciplines, with a focus on alternative energy and sustainable technologies. Graduates will receive a degree from the Masdar Institute and a certificate from MIT. The faculty of the Masdar Institute is already doing research at MIT and will be soon publishing research papers.  They are currently researching work in systems management, photovoltaic materials technologies and sustainability policy.

Also, Masdar has a research network which is a collaborative framework  with various universities.  In parallel, we have started field research in the City itself with different research institutes.  The Fraunhofer Institute for example is doing work on solar cooling and for Salzburg AG the project managers for a large scale cooling pilot.

Will Masdar City utilise traditional approaches to urban planning?

The Masdar City masterplan and design is based on the ideas of traditional low rise, high density buildings. It is bringing back the traditional and successful parts of Arabian architecture such as courtyards, high density and narrow streets that rely heavily on shaded areas. If you look at the city, the way it is designed and the way the streets are channelled, everything is reviving the successful aspects of traditional Arabian architecture.

Masdar City is a model that Abu Dhabi is developing as a live showcase for urban sustainability, demonstrating  the most credible way to embrace sustainability.

We are already seeing developers in the UAE and the region embracing sustainability and as Masdar City is developed more will realize the importance of sustainability principles in urban development. 

We have been contacted by so many other governments and developers from around the world trying to work with us.  At this stage we have decided to concentrate on the development of Masdar City itself and maybe in a year or so we can start talking to the rest of the world about how we can share our experience.

Do you think there needs to be a change to the mindset of people in the Gulf?

A change in the mindset of the population in the Gulf region is definitely due.  The way to do it and the way we have adopted is to provide people with information about their consumption trends and they will manage it and know what to do.  Our approach to lifestyle in Masdar City is to provide people with enough information about their behaviour.  Once people realise the size of their carbon footprint in terms of consumption of electricity, water and waste and their attitudes towards this, it should point them in the right direction of how they should adapt to reducing their footprint.  We are adopting the One Planet Living principles, which is an initiative by the World Wildlife Fund. The way we want to encourage people to embrace this is to provide them with enough data and information.  The problem with the Gulf and beyond is not that people don’t want to change because they have a high consumption lifestyle, it is because they don’t know the effect of what they are doing.

You don’t want people to reduce their reliance on cars or air conditioning but you want them to be used effectively.  They should design their buildings in a way that their reliance on air conditioning is automatically reduced because of the orientation of the building, because of the facade engineering and the way the cooling is actually designed which will help reduce the footprint.  And what Abu Dhabi is doing with the 2030 plan, is to develop a very effective transportation plan where people can really use public transportation to access different parts of the city and developments without having to use their cars. 

As far as energy is concerned, we are tapping into two natural resources – the ground and the sun and using different ways to leverage them.  We have so many different technologies being researched, so many projects going on right now that are in the pilot stage that we can’t announce.  Once we do have the results, this will be public information. We are testing different technology options, making sure they work and they scale properly. Hopefully we will be able to announce major findings within the next few years as  these are the sort of are things you want to bring to the whole world’s attention. That is what is making Masdar City one of the largest research, pilot and urban development projects in the world.



Source: Cityscape Intelligence