masdar

The Executive Council recently approved a number of projects that support the UAE’s global role as an energy provider. The Shams solar power plant is scheduled to be operational by August and will contribute 100 megawatts to the Abu Dhabi power grid.  Approval has also been given for the construction of the Sir Baniyas wind farm....[read more]

Masdar's Personal Rapid Transit is cool and all, but will it be the next greatest thing in e-mobility? Masdar City, the ambitious project to build a sustainable city on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, has been criticized by some for not moving fast enough or for making too many changes in its development strategy. But planning, designing...[read more]

Frank Wouters

Masdar, the clean energy company in oil-rich Abu Dhabi, is best known for building a green city in the Arabian desert. But while zero-carbon Masdar City has captured the lion's share of attention--here's my tour--Masdar as a company is having an impact far from home by investing in clean technology projects and startups in Europe,...[read more]

Increasing the US contribution of wind and solar power, geothermal energy, and even nuclear power would have virtually no effect on our oil imports or energy security, because we use so little oil for power. However, a pair of articles reminded me that this logic doesn't necessarily apply elsewhere. On Monday the Financial Times...[read more]

Tomorrow sees the start of the fourth World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, an event that has now firmly established itself as the foremost of its kind in the sustainable energy calendar. It will also be my fourth year of involvement with Siemens. And I’m happy to say, I am as excited this time around as I was back in 2008.There...[read more]

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and Masdar have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote collaboration on clean and sustainable energy technologies. DOE said that the agreement builds on the strong ties between the US and the UAE to establish a framework for cooperation in three key areas – carbon capture and...[read more]

Cleantech Group's Dallas Kachan, in the Gulf for the World Future Energy Summit, finds turbulence in Abu Dhabi's cleantech ascendancy, but reason for optimism. Consider, for a moment, the United Arab Emirates as microcosm and metaphor for the human condition. The story goes like this: Early settlers eking out a hardscrabble existence...[read more]

Tough talk as 98 government delegations, diverse stakeholders debate renewables in the heart of the hydrocarbon world Three years in, the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi is starting to live up to its name, bringing together heads of state, academics, researchers, financiers and consumers from South and East Asia, Europe, Africa...[read more]

Technology Review has a post outlining the case that Dubai's financial meltdown won't affect the Masdar project in the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi - Why Dubai's Troubles Won't Hurt Masdar.Dubai, one of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates, has been all over the news lately because it announced that its investment arm, Dubai...[read more]

Time for a smart grid news roundup - the one area of cleantech that seems to have stepped up to the next level this year .First up, The New York Times has an article on the state of play with the US grid - A National 'Smart Grid' Remains a Vision With Many Gaps.Like a complex jigsaw puzzle with lots of missing pieces, the picture of a...[read more]

One of the most important moments at the recent Bangkok UNFCCC meeting was the release by the IEA of its Climate Change Excerpt to the World Energy Outlook 2009. The full World Energy Outlook will be released in November as usual, but the pre-release was done to coordinate with the talks in Bangkok. The excerpt lays out a possible 450...[read more]

The Masdar initiative has started yet another type of renewable energy project, this time looking to harness geothermal energy in the Persian Gulf. "Utilities-me.com" reports - Masdar starts GCC's first geothermal project.Masdar City has outlined plans to establish the Gulf’s first geothermal energy project to generate electricity and...[read more]

I've posted information last year about the $15bn Masdar city - which aims to be the world's first zero-carbon and waste free city - and I wondered if investment and construction would slow down for this project because of the global financial crisis. I guess that's not happening as indicated by this news announced today from BASF. The...[read more]

The United Arab Emirates could surpass the United States and Europe by generating 20-30% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Middle East’s first 10-megawatt solar park at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi was connected to Abu Dhabi’s electrical grid at the end of May this year, and is using power to finish the zero-waste, zero-...[read more]

One of the more interesting sessions at the European Future Energy Forum was the one on Green building (in fact it was two back to back sessions, one titled Green building and the second was titled Energy Efficiency in Commercial and public spaces). Not surprisingly, given their heavy involvement in the organisation of the event, both...[read more]