MIT goes AbuDhabi Masdar green city

by SOLARLIFE | July 2, 2008 at 04:27 pm | 183 views | add comment

Abu Dhabi's green ambitions don't end with the city. It has persuaded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a graduate school and research institute focused exclusively on renewable energy.

Abu Dhabi wants to position itself as a global center for harnessing new fuels for a time when oil won't be as plentiful.

"It's no longer the issue of pumping oil out of the ground. It's the issue of competing globally for the same issues, and for that, they need highly trained people," MIT professor Fred Moavenzadeh said.

Fred Moavenzadeh, the James Mason Crafts Professor of Systems Engineering and Civil

and Environmental Engineering. "MIT is really a research-driven institution. The

education here is highly interactive with the research," he says. "That style of

education is very much missing in most countries," but plays an important role in

fostering innovative ideas that can spur a nation's economic development, he says.

Moavenzadeh says that "energy and environment are at the frontiers

"Every building will be designed and constructed to provide a model for sustainable

living and working," the Masdar Institute's web site declares. Power will come from

photovoltaic panels and surrounding wind farms. And the city will be built with the

"fullest use of innovation in energy-efficiency, sustainable practices, resource

recycling, biodiversity, transportation and green building standards," they say.

"It's a pretty exciting project," says MIT's Charles Cooney, professor of chemical

engineering and a member of the Masdar Initiative's executive committee. "The