Official says Abu Dhabi committed to clean energy

The dean of a research institute at the core of Abu Dhabi's green-energy city said Sunday the government remains firmly committed to renewable power after recent shifts in the ambitious project's goals.

Masdar Institute dean Marwan Khraisheh told The Associated Press that re-evaluating development plans was a "healthy sign" of progress for the Masdar initiative, which aims to make the Emirati capital a pioneer in alternative energy despite its heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

The government-run Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., known as Masdar, in October outlined a series of changes to plans for its Masdar City project, which is being built in the desert outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Project timetables were extended and less focus was placed on heavily publicized features such as electric podcars and self-contained power production.

That review has raised questions about the fate of the futuristic city and related low-carbon investments. Just last week a senior official at another Masdar division said the company was scrapping plans to build solar panels in the emirate because of weak demand.

But Khraisheh said there should be no doubt about the government's long-term backing for Masdar, which means "source" in Arabic.

"The commitment is not only to the center, but to the entire move towards a knowledge-based economy and a diversification of the economy," he said in his office on the institute's recently opened campus. "They've decided this is the future."

Masdar City was originally conceived as a self-contained "carbon-neutral" community of 40,000 residents and even more commuters where cars would be banned and waste and water would be recycled.

Officials say the changes announced last year are not a sign that the city is scaling back its ambitions. Rather, they characterize the review as a way to incorporate lessons learned in what they acknowledge is a particularly challenging project.

"Any effective plan has to be dynamic," Khraisheh said. "I'm not worried about it. Actually, it's a healthy sign that you are evaluating your plans and you are looking at the factors and the parameters around you."

The latest proposal allows room for some power to be produced from renewable sources at sites well away from Masdar City, where graduate students at the institute began moving to last year.

For the moment, though, the city is producing more than it consumes through vast solar arrays and is selling some of that power to the emirate's electricity grid, said Afshin Afshari, manager for energy management.

Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, and it controls most of the country's oil reserves.

The Gulf federation is the world's third-largest oil exporter. It also has the planet's largest ecological footprint per capita, according to the World Wildlife Fund. That means each of its residents uses more of the world's resources on average than those living in any other nation.

Abu Dhabi, nonetheless, is eager to be a leader in low-carbon technology. The city was picked in 2009 as the home of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

On Monday, it will again host the World Future Energy Summit, a conference and trade fair for the renewable energy industry.