1. Consider Masdar City Project as a “Prestige Projects”, should not be judged

on the basis of cost. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

I agree with Master City Project should not be judged on the basis of cost. It’s because,

Masdar City, one the most sustainable cities in the world, is part of Abu Dhabi’s pursuit

to become a global centre of excellence in the renewable energy and clean technology.

Masdar City project was initiated by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) in

2006 to build a city, which will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy

sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology.

As an emerging hub for knowledge, business, research and development, Masdar, Arabic

for source, provides a supportive environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, where

ventures can thrive and innovation can evolve.

1.1 Business in Masdar

Masdar City, which is operating as a "special economic zone" with a focus on clean

technology and renewable energy and will be home to a large number of commercial and

manufacturing facilities specializing in environmentally-friendly products.

As a test-bed for renewable energy, companies established in Masdar City can pilot,

demonstrate, refine, develop and commercialize their technologies. The city offers

several advantages for establishing clean energy start-ups including one stop shop service

which facilitates easy registration, licensing and recruitment procedures. Companies are

also offered benefits of free zones including 100 per cent foreign ownership, full

repatriation of capital and profits and exemption from import, export, corporate and

personal taxes.

1.2 Living in Masdar

As a modern Arabian city, the Masdar City offers its inhabitants an opportunity to live

and work in the same location, with pedestrian-friendly features which will reduce their

needs for internal transportation and air conditioning. The high density and sustainable

development project is expected to have 40,000 residents and 50,000 commuters upon its

full completion.

1.3 Buildings

Buildings in Masdar city are inspired by the traditional Gulf architecture to create low-

energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers. Already completed and

became fully operational are the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology campus and

its three residential buildings, two laboratory buildings and a Knowledge Centre. The city

also hosts a number of retail, services and food and beverage outlets as well as a monthly

organic farmers market and street fair which open from April to October every year.

In addition, work is progressing on a number of other buildings including the expansion

of Masdar Institute campus, Masdar headquarters which will house the headquarters of

both Masdar and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Courtyard

Building, which will be the first commercial building in the city and Siemens Building,

the new Middle East headquarters of Siemens.

1.4 Energy

Masdar has built a10MW solar photovoltaic plant to power the Masdar Institute

buildings, the temporary site administration facilities of Masdar City and the ongoing

construction activities within the city. Spread over an area of 22 hectares, the solar plant

is the largest of its kind in the Middle East and supplies the excess power to the Abu

Dhabi power grid.

1.5 Transportation

Within the city, automobiles will be banned and travel will be facilitated via clean-energy

transportation systems such as public mass transit system and Personal Rapid Transit

(PRT) system, which is currently used within the Masdar Institute campus as a pilot

project. The Group Rapid Transit (GRT) system uses electric trams, trolleys or buses.

These systems will be linked to the existing roads and railways connecting to other

locations outside the city.

1.6 Waste Management

The city will also attempt to reduce waste to zero. Biological waste will be used to create

nutrient-rich soil and fertiliser, and some may also be utilised through waste incineration

as an additional power source. Industrial waste, such as plastics and metals, will be

recycled or re-purposed for other uses.

1.7 Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

Masdar City is home to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which was

established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The

research-driven graduate-level higher education institution is dedicated to advanced

energy and sustainable technologies and welcomed its first batch of students on

September 6, 2009. The institute is aimed at supporting the research and development

activities in advanced alternative energy and environmental technologies within the

Masdar City. The institute, which is open to students from all nationalities, currently

offers two year MSc programmes in Computing and Information Science, Electrical

Power Engineering, Engineering Systems and Management, Materials Science and

Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Microsystems Engineering, Water and

Environmental Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Students receive full financial

support including tuition fees, housing, travel expenses, medical insurance and a cost of

living allowance, among others.

1.8 Visiting Masdar City

Through Masdar City, Abu Dhabi is inviting the global community to participate in the

search for creative solutions to the world's most pressing concerns: energy security, the

environment and the sustainable use of vital resources.

Everyone is welcome to visit Masdar City and experience its sustainability features and

energy-efficient architecture and landscaping. While general public can visit the city at

their own convenience, groups can arrange for special tours. Visitors get an opportunity

to ride on computer-guided, driverless vehicles that shuttle between the parking lot and

the Masdar Institute campus.

If you have a business interest in Masdar City or wish to visit the city as part of a

delegation, you can fill out the Delegation Registration Form and get a presentation

followed by a site tour of Masdar City with the relevant business unit representative.

2. Project success is defined as adherence to: budget, schedule, performance,

and client satisfaction. Under this criteria, when might the UAE be able to judge the

success or failure of Masdar-style initiatives and overseas investments?

At middle of the year 2010, many of the news announced that Masdar City was faltering

a bit. Most of the work was already reported to be behind of the schedule, tests of

photovoltaic panels were not yielding the expected returns, investments from the private

sector were behind schedule and a wave of departures rocked Masdar’s internal

appearance.

The first signal of failure of Masdar city was highlighting Masdar’s decision to delay the

city’s launch by a year from 2017 to 2018 to allow investigation of geothermal energy as

a possibility for the city. These stresses that financial constraints were not a factor in this

decision and that it is about making the most optimal decisions for the city to provide

stable and renewable energy.

Within three months, Masdar’s official position on its own finances had changed. In

meantime, one of Masdar’s leaders stated that the company had cut costs by lying off 34

staff members and was considering limiting the PRT to only the MIST campus.

Furthermore, power was no longer to be generated entirely on site, but instead Masdar

would import “green” power from plants built further out in the Abu Dhabi desert,

supposedly to cut costs and improve feasibility. Yet despite this, Masdar was neither

scaling down nor reducing its targets. However, even with these public proclamations,

the plan of Masdar quietly submitted to review in March, 2010, with a release of a

revised plan scheduled for the summer.

In April, an association with the US Department of Energy was announced to share

information and expertise on carbon neutral cities, attract clean tech firms and use

advanced solar panel technology for the city. Yet right on the heels of this announcement

came the mourned loss of the city-wide PRT and the car free goal of the city.

Believing it not to be technologically feasible, Masdar’s leaders unofficially sacked the

PRT system in April (the official announcement did not come until October, but

throughout the summer, Masdar shied away from the system in public comments). This

was followed by an article in July documenting that Masdar was having trouble

generating as much electricity as anticipated from photovoltaic panels because of the

extremely dusty conditions and sandstorms in Abu Dhabi. Coupled with announcements

pushing back the completion date to 2020 and beyond and the layoffs mentioned by Frost

earlier in the year, many were wondering about the future of the city and eagerly awaiting

the results of the internal review.

In October, several months later than originally anticipated, Masdar finally released its

review of the city’s progress to date. It admitted that construction had fallen behind, but

attributed this largely to extra time taken in identifying solutions and overcoming

unexpected problems such as deficiencies in solar panel efficiencies due to sand and dust.

The new plan revealed officially that the PRT would be confined to the MIST campus for

now and that due to a shortfall of demand, the build out would be much slower and

lasting until 2025. Furthermore, power generation would be diverted primarily to larger

plants in the desert and not rooftop panels.

The rash of changes and new plan for Masdar’s expansion and construction prompted

critics to proclaim the demise of the city and question the internal leadership. At the same

time, he reiterated once more that the city was neither scaling back nor scaling down

despite the new plan and changes.

With all of these recent changes to Masdar’s ambitious plans, it is easy to question the

project’s success, goals, and strategies. In light of the failures of Dongtan and

Huangbaiyu, it is not even a stretch to fear that Masdar may go the way of these

predecessors.

3. What are the lessons to be learned from the Masdar projects? How might a

similar project work in other countries?

Masdar City provides an excellent example of how innovative research can be applied to

a trailblazing venture. Indeed, the project has suffered setbacks but it nonetheless

demonstrates that to move forward with green technology and lifestyles, grounded

projects must be launched. Any municipality interested in increasing their sustainability

can do, but they must first initiate sustainable projects and policy, all the while locating

and integrating green technology into their human and geographic contexts. Unavoidably

and as Masdar City displays, unforeseen issues (e.g. financial crises, technology failures,

time issues) will arise and threaten the projects success.

As construction on Masdar City advanced, project leaders had to be flexible; both with

small changes and modifications to the overall vision of the project. Similarly, cities

operating in an unsustainable manner can overcome the negative outdated urban elements

through strategic planning. Masdar demonstrates that one of the ways to do this is by

launching projects to test the feasibility of various ‘greening’ techniques.

Cities like Masdar could be the norm in the future. Even within oil dependent societies

and regions that are organized around conventional principles that do not promote

sustainable practices, there is still a place and a need for groundbreaking projects in these

contexts. While the use, value and feasibility of Masdar city is disputed and the outcomes

are yet to be known, the project, at the very least and displays alternatives forms of urban

living.

This case study shows that sustainable projects must be grounded in their context and

development must be guided by working with factors such as climate and culture.

Recognizing what climatic factors can be modified to improve a city’s sustainability, and

which of them need to be modified are two important steps in this process.

Further, Masdar City exhibits that planning can work with economic forces and not

against them. This project shows that developing clean-energy solutions can be aided by

“integrating the entire value chain of the renewable energy industry, from education and

research to investment and commercialization”. Indeed, integrated design and

development is key in a city becoming more sustainable; both spatially and conceptually.

Though more factors are at play in older cities such as Montreal, they can still achieve

integrated design geared towards sustainability through planning that combines climatic

and human elements.