Welcome to Masdar City, a state-of-the-art community in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. This pioneer of low-carbon living and urban development was devised by renewable-energy company Masdar and funded by the Abu Dhabi government. It represents a milestone in the UAE’s long-term plan to achieve net zero by 2050 and diversify the economy beyond oil.
The city is a site for innovation and home to a rapidly growing clean-technology cluster, including Siemens, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), GE and the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). More than 1,000 public- and private-sector organisations are now based in the city, which covers 6 sq km and is also an economic free zone.
Masdar City today has more than 4,000 residents, but its ultimate future capacity is estimated close to 50,000. The community is powered partly by on-site renewable energy and constructed using sustainable materials. Its eco-friendly buildings are designed to reduce energy and water consumption by at least 40 per cent1 — although some have surpassed this figure. Three net zero energy buildings, which will produce as much energy as they consume, are currently under construction. Could this be a viable model for urban living in a low-carbon future?
Ahmed Baghoum, Masdar City’s CEO, believes this to be the case. Baghoum joined the company in 2009 as director of the Masdar City Free Zone and is now responsible for driving Masdar City’s sustainable growth strategy.
“We're accelerating the transition to net zero by creating buildings, infrastructure and systems that reduce energy use, produce clean energy, and offset emissions,” he says. “The faster we can get there, the closer we are to a full transition.”
Building for the future
Despite the arid climate, Masdar City is designed for pedestrians, oriented to channel prevailing winds and designed with narrow, shaded streets that help the city feel 5 to 10 degrees Celsius cooler than the surrounding area. Residents can take advantage of several electric transportation options, including autonomous underground vehicles and above-ground buses.
The principles of designing urban architecture with minimal environmental impact are reflected throughout Masdar City. It hosts one of the world’s largest clusters of LEED Platinum buildings, which are constructed with low-carbon cement, recycled aluminium, and other sustainable materials. Windows are angled and shaded to minimise direct sunlight, and exterior walls are airtight, with high-quality insulation.
“Now most of our buildings are, at a bare minimum, LEED Gold or Platinum. There’s a lot of design, a lot of engineering, really a lot of granularity in terms of how you achieve net zero energy buildings—particularly in a climate like Abu Dhabi’s,” he says.
An existing net zero energy prototype, the 405-sq-metre Eco Villa, completed in 2017, is designed to use 72 per cent less energy and 35 per cent less water than a home of a similar size,2 owing to a suite of ‘passive’ design features, including insulated concrete walls and a rainwater-harvesting system. Its 87 rooftop solar panels also produce up to 40,000 kWh of electricity per year.3 Any energy not needed to power the Eco Villa is fed back into the local grid.
As host of COP28, the UAE has an opportunity to showcase Masdar City as a blueprint for other developers. The event will also be a chance for Masdar City to debut Abu Dhabi’s first net zero energy office building, to be followed by another two net zero energy commercial and residential buildings in 2024 and 2025.
“We’re trying to export the model to the wider UAE, creating pilots within Abu Dhabi and beyond,” Baghoum says. “The aim is to support the UAE government’s net zero targets.”
Stepping up solar
Masdar City’s aim is to meet all its energy needs from renewable sources. While currently, some power is still drawn from the national grid, a large portion is generated by 11 MW of solar panels located on building roofs and an on-site solar photovoltaic plant. This offsets more than 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
When Masdar opened the solar facility in 2009, it was the first grid-connected renewable-energy project in the UAE and the largest in the Middle East,4 but, at 40 US cents per kWh, the energy it produced was among the most expensive in the world. As solar electricity became more economically viable, however, the investment paid off: today, Masdar’s solar power costs as little as 1.35 US cents per kWh, making it some of the cheapest solar energy globally.5
Circular solutions
Masdar City is also incubating solutions for waste disposal. One of its start-ups, Circa Biotech, has developed the region’s first project to upcycle organic waste into animal feed, fertilisers and oils.6 When the project reaches full industrial scale, Circa Biotech plans to treat 200 tonnes of food waste per day, diverting it away from landfill and reducing methane emissions.
By acting as an incubator for such projects, Masdar City can support the development and scaling of sustainable technology across the wider region.
“Making sustainable technologies commercially viable is a challenge we need to overcome,” Baghoum says. “We’re solving that through innovation, partnership, and investment, and the free zone is playing an instrumental role in that. And of course, as the ecosystem grows, it attracts more of what we need. It’s a snowball effect.”
“We also want to share what we’ve learned with others,” he continues. “It’s not a competition. Ultimately, what is important to us is sustainability. It’s a global challenge.”
