Masdar Institute – Nucleus of an urban vision
The first construction phase of the Masdar Project, comprising six buildings of the Masdar Institute, was opened in Autumn 2010. This justifies taking a closer look at the project. Its original goals were ambitious: to create a city for 40,000 residents and 50,000 commuters from scratch, completed by 2020, for $ 22 billion, in proximity to Abu Dhabi, entirely CO2 neutral. The overall primary energy consumption is projected to be on average 70 % lower than Abu Dhabi’s current, and not particularly modest, use of energy. The target figure is 50,000 kWh/a per individual – comparable to Germany’s energy consumption, yet with significantly higher cooling loads in the hot summer climate. Up to 90 % of its electricity can be generated by solar sources. Due to the world financial and real estate crisis, the project is also affected by cost reduction and delayed completion dates.
