Over the next seven years, the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city will rise from the Abu Dhabi desert. The $22 billion project, managed by Denver-based engineering and construction firm CH2M Hill, encompasses about 2 square miles and will house 50,000 people.
“There are a lot of visionary things going on” in the United Arab Emirates, said Jim Otta, global director of project development for CH2M Hill.
Called Masdar, the city will operate without fossil-fueled vehicles. Instead, 2,500 Personal Rapid Transit vehicles powered by solar energy and batteries will generate 150,000 trips a day. A separate system below the surface of the city will transport goods and materials throughout the city.
Terry Penney, technology manager for advanced vehicles at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said plug-in vehicles will be the wave of the future in the United States.
“With a plug-in coming down the line, it’s kind of like an appliance to the house,” he said.
The mission of the developer, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., is to create a next-generation sustainable community.
“If they can perfect some of these things and perfect the retrofitting of them into existing developments, they could retrofit Los Angeles, New York and other large cities,” Otta said.
Masdar will use an array of water-reduction technologies, including high-efficiency appliances, gray and black water recycling, landscaping with low-water-use plants, seawater greenhouses, dew catchers and rainwater recovery.
Many of the concepts that will work in Abu Dhabi are not suited for places such as Colorado. Recycling wastewater would require a change in state law, NREL spokesman George Douglas said.
“You have to let the water go back into the stream because of downstream rights,” he said. “And if we wanted to put separate solar panels to power every house in my neighborhood in Park Hill, we’d have to cut down an awful lot of trees, which people would be pretty upset about.”
But Douglas said a lot of other approaches could be employed here. Zero-energy homes, for example, are increasingly being built locally.
“Neighborhood by neighborhood, we are changing the way we think about using energy,” he said.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
