Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Masdar City ... the city of the future



With the name of my Travel Blog being ‘Travel the globe with Rosina’, it’s only apt to travel the globe and talk about the experiences I have. I’m now in Abu Dhabi for the Easter holiday and wow, what a wonderful time I’m having. 

With the World’s Energy Future Summit just being held in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, it seemed appropriate to step into another world … Step into the future … Step into Masdar City. 

Masdar, a Mubadala Company, boasts that Masdar is ‘The Reality of Future Energy’, and sure enough it is.
Everything, including the architecture, transportation and reasons behind structures, blew us away.

We are at the dawn of a global energy revolution that will transform the way we think about power generation, distribution and consumption. Companies must have the agility, the expertise and the long-term vision to respond to this new and uncertain landscape, and so, being well ahead of its time, Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City is the very vision of what is being described here.  

Operating across the full spectrum of renewable energy and sustainable technologies, it was just amazing to see Masdar helping develop the greenprint for how we will live in the future. 

Utterly flabbergasted at the design of the city and its layout, we stepped into the future and had a ride in our very own Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), which was mind-boggling as it moved by itself and wasn’t even on a track … What a superb mode of transport for the future. In answering one of the priorities, Masdar City’s master plan of being a pedestrian-focused community, a rich network of public and personal transportation options will ensure ease to move across the city.  

A public transport system of electric buses, electric cars and other clean-energy vehicles will provide transport within the city, while Abu Dhabi’s light rail and Metro lines will pass through the centre. 

In doing so, Masdar City is piloting a PRT and Freight Rapid Transit system of electric-powered, automated, single-cabin vehicles that offer privacy, comfort and non-stop travel. 

We felt like aliens of some sort, stepping into this city of the future, and imagining how Abu Dhabi would implement the same systems into its city depending on Masdar’s success.   
 
As the capital of the United Arab Emirates as well as being home to 8% of proven global crude oil reserves, Abu Dhabi is spending billions of dollars in the development of Masdar and the establishing of the capital as a global centre of excellence in renewable energy and clean technologies.  

Masdar Institute, an independent, research-driven graduate institute with the ongoing support of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is focussed on being at the heart of the home-grown research and development of Masdar City. 

Masdar City is somewhere you should surely take the time to visit, and you might just feel like an alien in your own PRT. Think of the future, think Masdar City. 

It’s worth a look! http://masdarcity.ae/en/

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