Masdar City
24°30′N 54°42′E / 24.500°N 54.700°E Masdar (Arabic: مصدر maṣdar, "source") is a planned city in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The city is constructed in Abu Dhabi, some 30 km east of the capital of Abu Dhabi, near Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The initiative is headed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC) and presided by Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Initiated in 2006, the project is estimated to take some 10 years to complete, with the first phase complete and inhabitable in 2009. The city is intended to cover six square kilometers, with no point further than 200 m from a public transport link, housing energy, science and technology communities.
Masdar will be the site of a university, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and some 1,500 companies. Notable partners in the projects include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, General Electric, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi, Rolls-Royce, Total S.A., Mitsui, Fiat, and the German solar energy Conergy, which is planning a 40 mW solar power plant.