A brave attempt at a sustainable city
The United Arab Emirates is an oil rich desert realizing that their dependence on oil would not help it survive far into the future resulting in them branching into fields like tourism. Masdar city, an upcoming project near Abu Dhabi (the capital of the UAE) aims to be the worlds first zero carbon footprint city in the world. The city is powered by solar photovoltaic plants, concentrated solar power plants and solar powered desalination plants.
The streets and buildings were built to make use of the natural winds moving from north-east to south-west, shades all around the city so that people may use less energy for cooling in the hot weather and a 45m wind tower that sends the hot air upwards and brings cool air down. Commuting is done through driverless pods running on lithium batteries that have routes to different paths of the city.
The Abu Dhabi government has taken a big risk to make use of the technology available and financially backed (more than 15 billion dollars) this project to pave the way for more sustainable cities. If this project is successful it could help preserve non-renewable resources like oil while making use of renewable resources like solar energy and wind energy.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311426850_A_Case_Study_of_Masdar_City
