World’s first ‘green city’
25 March 2008
Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi is set to be the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city fully powered by renewable energy.
The 6km square, car free, walled city will produce more energy than it consumes and will use the surrounding land for wind and photovoltaic farms so that it will be entirely self-sustaining.
Costing £11.3bn and taking eight years to build, the city will be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. It will be designed by Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture and is scheduled to open in 2009, becoming a benchmark for the next generation of green design.
Architecturally, the city will provide low energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers. Residents will be able to move around in travel pods running on magnetic tracks.
Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant and Masdar City will only need a quarter of the power required for a similar sized community as well as 60% less water.
It will become home to the world’s largest hydrogen power plant and is supported by global conservation charity, the WWF.
Warren Diogo of Lloyd’s insurer Ascot Renewco said: “This initiative is far bigger than solar panels and photovoltaic testing facilities; there are plans for wind, hydrogen power, desalinisation, carbon capture and storage, geothermal and solar thermal technologies.
“Each of the proposed technologies brings with it a unique set of risks and challenges for the insurance sector – each with a potentially different underwriting approach. For example, the roof top solar PV applications which are integrated into building design could be wrapped into standard property builders risk policies. Whereas for the ground mounted solar collector plant and other large scale facilities, the complexity, higher values involved will require a more specialist underwriting approach.
“Another issue will be the prototypical nature of some of the new and advanced technologies proposed such as the hydrogen powered and desalinisation plant and carbon capture and storage technology.”
According to an energy broker at Miller, the insurance implications that surround this issue of renewable energy would involve the construction risks for the solar panels and other renewable energy technologies which can be written in the market place and are well-covered.
Masdar City will also be home to The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) the world’s only graduate school dedicated to renewable energy which is being founded with the assistance of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Last updated on 26 Nov 2008
