The Masdar Initiative: Going Green in the UAE

In 2006, Abu Dhabi launched the Masdar Initiative, a $15bn project that seeks to “embrace renewable and sustainable energy technologies.”

One of the ways that Masdar Initiative hopes to do this largely through the construction of Masdar City, a zero-emissions, zero-carbon, zero-waste city with a target population of 50,000.

According to VentureBeat:

Although much of that money will go toward construction and infrastructure requirements, Masdar is also becoming a significant force in fostering new technologies. The Masdar Clean Tech Fund has already sunk $250 million into cleantech ventures from its first fund, and is in the process of raising more capital for a second.

The investment dollars are going in large part to ideas for energy generation. The planned power supply of Masdar is to be split between several sources, with solar providing the majority; a 500 megawatt solar thermal installation a 100MW solar concentrator project (which funding has not yet been announced for) are in the works. Research is going into thin film, and the city will play host to a solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant.

However, another 500MW will come from a plant fueled by hydrogen, Al Jaber said in his speech. The new city will provide a rare opportunity to test out utility-scale use of hydrogen, which is estimated to be decades away in this country.

The initiative has also launched an eponymous Masdar Clean Tech Fund that seeks to invest $250mm .