Date published: 2008/02/10
The BBC says:
Abu Dhabi has started to build what it says is the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city.
Masdar City will cost $22bn (£11.3bn), take eight years to build and be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses.
The city will be mostly powered by solar energy and residents will move in travel pods running on magnetic tracks.
Abu Dhabi has one of the world's biggest per capita carbon footprints and sceptics fear Masdar may be just a fig leaf for the oil-rich Gulf emirate.
Others fear Masdar City - on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi City - may become a luxury development for the rich.
The project is supported by global conservation charity, the WWF.
The city will make use of traditional Gulf architecture to create low-energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers.
Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant, Masdar says. The city will need a quarter of the power required for a similar sized community, while its water needs will be 60% lower.
Just the latest blockbusting new city around the world which will allegedly be "green". Assuming the quoted cost is split 50-50 between housing and offices, this equates to over 200k dollars per person for the housing. If there are (say) 2.5 people per house that means each house is costing 500k dollars. There is no quotation for the cost of the land, but since it is at the edge of the city, this is probably insignificant. So effectively the actual build cost of the housing and infrastructure to support the housing is indeed 500k dollars per house. That is a pretty high number, and would indicate this is indeed going to become a "luxury development for the rich" (but who cares if it does).
What this really means is that there are going to be an awful lot of up-front carbon emissions (well, 22 billion dollars in total) in order to then (allegedly) save future emissions. Of course, if there is anywhere where solar power is ever going to make sense, it has to be in hot countries like the Middle East.
The "pods running on magnetic tracks" looks to be one large source of up-front carbon emissions, since the implication is that this will magically remove the need for cars. Well, if this system is anywhere good enough to match the functionality of cars (and would any of the rich people this city is targetted at accept anything less?), then one might as well call these cars. They just might happen to run (indirectly) on electricity instead of petrol.
And the BBC unfortunately fails to mention in what way the WWF "supports" this project. Are they receiving any money for this "support"? The lack of critical analysis by the BBC here and elsewhere in the article makes the whole thing read just like a press release from the company behind the city, which is presumably what it was.
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