Technical challenges push Masdar back four years
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Masdar has pushed the finish date for its US$22 billion eco-city back four years to 2020 because it says the technical challenge are greater than first expected.
Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Government’s clean energy firm, said the first phase of the world’s first carbon neutral, zero-waste city will be ready by the original 2013 deadline, but the rest of the development will emerge more gradually as the company experiments with new technology, officials said.
“Masdar is not a typical real estate development and is not bound by similar pressures of fixed completion dates,” a Masdar spokesman told the UAE daily The National. “For Masdar, success will not be measured on the speed with which the city is constructed, but the standards it sets in addressing today’s energy and sustainability challenges.”
The city is expected to have a critical mass of residents and businesses by 2020.
The $22bn was originally to be provided by equity partners and debt finance, with Masdar coming up with $4bn towards construction.
“Much of what is being done in the city has never been done on such a large scale,” the spokesman said. “Thus the complexities involved in such a project are generally unprecedented, and while these realities might affect construction, the key point is that Masdar City’s experience will make it easier for the development of other sustainable cities.”
The company announced in September that it would drill two deep wells in search of geothermal sources to produce electricity.
The company also said it was re-evaluating the case for using mirrors to concentrate the heat of the sun to power generators because tests showed that dust and haze reduced the technology’s performance. The findings bolstered the case for using photovoltaic panels instead.
The first phase includes building the Masdar Institute of Technology, a new graduate school for clean technology, the Masdar company headquarters and the surrounding neighbourhood.
The institute was originally scheduled to be completed by last year, but is now on track to open in time for the start of classes third quarter 2010. The headquarters building, billed as the world’s first “energy positive” building because its rooftop solar panels will produce more electricity than the building uses, will also house the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Together, the headquarters and institute will form a hub of the city, with the immediate surrounding neighbourhood containing a mix of residential, commercial and hospitality developments.
AECOM, the US engineering and architectural firm, was awarded a project management consultancy for the Masdar Institute Neighbourhood in 2009.
Source: iCON - the international magazine of the CIOB (www.iconreview.org)
