Abu Dhabis Masdar Project: Dazzling? Or Just a Mirage?

When you have lots of cash, you can afford things that ordinary mortals cant. A wealthy businessman recently paid $35 million to go on a joy ride to outer space for no apparent good to anyone. Some critics put the $22 billion Masdar project in Abu Dhabi in the same category, except that it will cost a lot more and may do even less good in the end. Others see the project as a worthy experiment, especially coming from a gas-guzzling state in oil-rich United Arab Emirates. The project, in a snapshot, is to build a selfcontained economic zone creating 70,000 jobs and eventually housing as many as 40,000 residents in the middle of the desert by 2016. The community, which is envisioned to house a science and technology park and housing, is designed to be carbon neutral and virtually waste-free. Two-thirds of the power is to come from a 10 MW solar farm, and nearly all water is to be recycled and reused. There will be virtually no waste, as all packaging and material are to be recycled, used for power generation or turned into compost. The car-free zone will be served by advanced personal rapid transit (PRT) vehicles that will zip residents around the 6.5-square-kilometer area. If that sounds too good to be true, it may turn out to be that way. The problem with Masdar, which means source in Arabic, is not so much what goes inside it, but rather what is outside. UAE is home to a massive energy-guzzling indoor skiing resort that keeps articial snow cool in mid-summer when the outside temperature soars to 50 degrees Centigrade. Its per capita energy consumption is worse than the U.S. even though there is no industry to speak of and relatively little need for transportation, given the relatively small size of the state. Aside from energy, UAE has a huge appetite for desalinated water to keep its lush golf courses and parks green with non-native lawns and plants rather than heat-tolerant local vegetation. Making matters
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worse, energy and water are generously subsidized by the state along with everything else. This encourages conspicuous consumption unparalleled anywhere else on earth with a few minor exceptions. In short, UAE is not a model for sustainable development and has been justly criticized for it, which may explain what prompted Masdars CEO, Sultan al-Jaber, to envision the bold plan. Richard Hirsekorn, who is managing the project at CH2M Hill, a U.S. engineering consulting company, describes the Masdar project as very leading-edge and innovative, adding it will incorporate many principles and technologies that havent been used on this scale in a city anywhere in the world. John Hoffner, a solar engineer also working on the project, calls Masdar one of the most exciting and challenging projects I have worked on to date. Very rewarding and if the project is successful, it will be an example for the world (emphasis added). Despite all the high-tech components and the glamour, the project uses many concepts from traditional design principles used in dry and hot Middle East for centuries before the invention of air conditioning, including narrow streets oriented to shield the sun while capturing the prevailing wind, shallow pools that cool the air through evaporation, and wind towers that push cooler air to the ground and act as natural air conditioners. Cars will be banned in the special zone, which is connected to the rest of Dubai via a light rail line. And that is where energy efciency ends. Once one steps outside the special zone, one is back to the real world of big SUVs driving around aimlessly on cheap oil, high rises and megamalls chilled with humming air conditioning in the desert sun. Masdar is reminiscent of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. Once you park your car in the parking lot and enter, everything is clean safe and orderly, there are no cars, no crime and only fun and games no wonder it is called the happiest place on earth. But once you step out of the park, the real world confronts you with all its unpleasant realities. And just as Disneyland has not changed the image of Los Angeles as an endless sprawl of wasteful freeways and millions of cars in search of a city center, Masdar The Electricity Journal

is unlikely to change the image of Abu Dhabi as the most carbon-intensive place on earth. &
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CAISO Flicks Switch On Nodal Scheme And Lights Stay on

In 2000-01, two years after introducing a competitive wholesale power auction in California with a separate day-ahead zonal market operated by the California Power Exchange (PX) and a zonal market for ancillary services and balancing energy operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) the California market collapsed from exorbitant prices, agrant gaming, and abuse of market power. Pacic Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) sought bankruptcy protection while Southern California Edison Company (SCE) was teetering on the edge of the same abyss. The state had to step in to buy power from private generators since the utilities were no longer creditworthy and had to sign long-term contracts that ended up costing the state billions of dollars, some still on the books. The asco nixed the PX, leaving a bruised CAISO to operate the remaining spot markets. The governor at the time, Democrat Gray Davis, was ousted from ofce in a mid-term election. The dark episode virtually stopped any prospects for a

national competitive U.S. retail market, with only the state of Texas opening its market to competition after Californias collapse although Midwest ISO (MISO) began wholesale market operations in 2005 and PJM has expanded its footprint westward. It was in this context that, nine years later, CAISO introduced a nodal pricing auction for the wholesale market in April, replacing the zonal scheme, which was among many causes of the collapse of the original markets demise. With nearly 3,000 nodes on the network, high prices in one region do not affect prices everywhere on the system a signicant improvement over the zonal scheme, where there were essentially two prices, a south and a north zone with limited transmission capacity in between. After investing some $200 million to upgrade the software, countless delays, and 18 months of market simulation and testing CAISO ofcials did not wish to leave any stones unturned lest the new scheme go haywire again the new auction was introduced and surprise nothing unusual happened. Ofcials at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) were particularly keen to observe how the new system would work in California. ERCOT is also contemplating a switch to a nodal system. After spending hold your breath $584 million and still counting on its own software and system upgrades, ERCOT is planning to go nodal in December 2010. But the date of switchover has been receding like a mirage, having been postponed a number of times already. &
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Obama Quickly Signals He Means Business on Green Issues

Continued from page 1
 Jon Wellinghoff, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), has released a policy statement to accelerate the development of the smart grid much talked about but not making any progress up to now; June 2009, Vol. 22, Issue 5  Energy Secretary Steve Chu stated that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is no longer an option, something that was obvious to many but not publicly acknowledged before;  Even more stunning, Secretary Chu also publicly stated his support for carbon tariffs
1040-6190/$see front matter 5