More on Masdar City

I got a small guide book on our way out of the institution and I'd like to share it here.

- There are more than 35 different panels being tested, including both thin-film and crystalline. The results o the first round of testing helped in the selection of the roof-mounted PV panels used for one of the Masdar Institution buildings. Since this city will be a self-sustaining community, most of the energy to be used will be from the surroundings. One of its sources is the solar. Being in the Middle East where the sun is always smiling, why not use it to produce electricity.

- Another source of highly advance technology of producing clean electricity is the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). They call this the Beam Down Project. Although still in the R&D stage, initial results show that the 100kW tower could generate 75-85MWh of clean electricity a year, enough to power 10-15 homes.

- For water supply, the deep drilling of underground water is conducted. They are searching for geothermal water which is sufficiently hot. This will be used in thermal cooling and domestic hot water.

- The 10 MW power plant has 87, 777 polycrystalline and thin-film modules that covers an entire 22-hectare of land at the periphery of Masdar City. The farm aims to produce 17,500MHh if clean electricity annually, thereby offsetting 15,000 tons of carbon emissions per year - equivalent to taking 3,300 cars off Abu Dhabi's roads.

- On a 12-hectare site the contractors and builders of this incredible city bring their construction waste for separation and processing in accordance to recycling. Masdar City and its contractors are diverting up to 96% of construction waste from landfill and using it in the build of the city.

- Upon entering the city, you will be welcome a modern design but with minimalistic theme using less waste. Hanging from the ceiling of the PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) station are numerous glass-reinforced concrete panels. Copper pipes carrying chilled water run through the panels, cooling the concrete, which in turn provides highly efficient radiated cooling to the station.

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