Talk:Masdar City/Archive 1

I'm very skeptical
The article says, "...the city will rely entirely on solar energy, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology..."

I know the article cites its sources. But I'm skeptical that those sources are accurate.

I suspect that once the city is fully operational and fully inhabited, it will use some additional source(s) of energy, and it will produce more waste than zero. Grundle2600 (talk) 23:30, 22 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Having met the CEO personally I can say he's committed to the vision of zero-carbon and complete sustainability, however the Masdar City is effectively a test bed for whatever research the Masdar Initiative (including, hopefully, the Institute too) end up producing. Unfortunately whilst the City and the Institute have wiki pages, the Initiative as a whole does not due to lack of information. From what I understand Masdar will be submitting its first report on renewable energy in approximately 5 years time. 195.229.235.41 (talk) 07:50, 23 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, while building up this article, I didn't really come across much that spoke directly of the Initiative, other than how it relates to Masdar, likely because Masdar City is the more visible and "tangible" part of the project. If you come across any news articles or other verifiable (reliable) sources that discuss the Initiative, please make a note of them here, and maybe we can build an article on the Initiative. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 11:16, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Project leadership
The article states that the Masdar City Project is presided by Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, but after a brief web search I could not find any mention of His Highness in connection with leadership of the project. According to the Masdar web page, the CEO is Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, but no further people are mentioned in this context. --AlastairIrvine (talk) 13:43, 20 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I decided to remove the information considering what you said. I could also not find any information.  The only thing I found was that Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the project, but it says nothing about him presiding over the project.  Leitmanp (talk | contributions) 00:39, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh is the Chairman of the Masdar Initiative, and was mentioned previously Sultan Al Jaber is the CEO.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.229.235.41 (talk) 08:28, 16 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reminder, I've added these names to the infobox. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 15:46, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Settlement type
In the infobox, it says that Masdar is a "walled city." I do not believe this is correct. It is not even a city. It is just a future area of the city of Abu Dhabi. Can someone explain to me why they believe Masdar can be considered a "walled city?" Leitmanp (talk | contributions) 22:35, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Because that is what they specifically call themselves here, and references to the city walls are made in multiple other sources. As far as I can tell, while Abu Dhabi may eventually engulf the region, this is/will be considered a separate city, but it is one of those time-will-tell situations.  No need to get into the Original Research area by declaring it not to be a separate entity because it may one day be incorporated into the capital. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 23:01, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, thank you very much for your quick reply. I guess we can keep "walled city" until something changes (either during construction or many years from now).  Thanks.  Leitmanp (talk | contributions) 23:08, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Good deal. Consider, though, even cities and towns which have been nominally absorbed by others tend to retain their own sense of self. My guess is that it will retain the common name of "Masdar City", though again, any real discussion on this matter is still many years off. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 23:51, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Bethesda
The bethesda link goes to a disambiguation page, but I can't figure out which entry is the correct one to link to. Could someone who is better informed than me fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.199.128.156 (talk) 10:29, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I went ahead and removed the text entirely. I believe that it was referring to Bethesda, Maryland -- but that seems like a somewhat odd comparison to make. I removed the surrounding text because it did not seem accurate to me (Palo Alto and Bangalore were certainly not built as planned research-oriented cities), and the "fuller expression" wording seemed somewhat POV. I do think that the idea of purpose-built cities is fascinating (comparisons to Los Alamos, New Mexico also spring to mind), but we need to be sure to cite appropriate sources for these comparisons, rather than construct original research ourselves. Skybum (talk) 17:57, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Economist's view
This entire section appears to be a direct copy and paste. Someone with more time than me might want to reword it, or at least put it in quotation marks. 155.245.111.231 (talk) 13:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Masdar City Inaccuracies
Dear Wikipedia Community,

We know and appreciate the importance of your independence. We also know that editing the Wikipedia site ourselves undermines that independence and the integrity of your site.

But, there are a few points we want to flag because we believe they will improve the accuracy of the Masdar City page.

To begin:

•	The first sentence, “Masdar…is a planned city in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. It is an initiative by the Government of Abu Dhabi through Mubadala Development Company,” can cause confusion. Masdar City is in fact being built by Masdar, also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company. (Note: The City is called Masdar City, not to be confused with Masdar the company)


 * Okay, for clarification: I know Masdar City is being built by ADFEC (aka Masdar), but does the government of Abu Dhabi or the UAE have any involvement in the project aside from providing the 15 billion in seed capital mentioned in The Economist? In the meantime, I've rephrased to read: "It is being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of financing being provided by the government of Abu Dhabi."

•	The table on the right: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of the UAE, should be separated from the Company’s CEO and Chairman. The CEO and Chairman of Masdar are not government officials.


 * Excellent point, given the above info. I'll remove the Sheikh.

•	Sources at the bottom: Source numbers one, six, seven, 11 and 12 all don’t work because Masdar’s main website has changed from www.masdaruae.ae to www.masdar.ae. In addition, a new Masdar City specific website has been recently created and can be visited at www.masdarcity.com


 * Fixed.

•	Partners of the Clean Tech Fund: The correct Clean Tech partners are Credit Suisse, Consensus Business Group and Siemens. Those mentioned have no role in the Masdar Cleantech Fund.


 * Fixed. Those originally listed in the article came from the source listed in the citation. Not sure what was going on there since it was a document hosted on an official site.

•	The last sentence: Mubadala is behind building the biggest Aluminum Smelter. This is correct, however although Mubadala is our parent company they are not the development agency behind Masdar City. Masdar or again the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company is the developer. Mubadala is not building any of Masdar’s projects.


 * For the time being, I've removed this entire section, as it was a copy and paste from that Economist article. I'll likely readd some points mentioned in the article, but I'll take your clarification into account. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 00:23, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Let us know what you think – and we hope you’ll take this into consideration. A corporate Masdar page would clear up some of the confusion found throughout the piece, should anyone be interested in creating one, we would be grateful for your time and happy to provide sources of reference for both Masdar City and Masdar.

Thank you,

The Masdar Communications Team--Masdar (talk) 20:35, 18 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay, hopefully I've addressed the points above. Please feel free to make further suggestions (and notice of needed updates) any time. Sorry it took so long to respond...I'll be more prompt in the future :) Perhaps a corporate Masdar article can be worked on, but I'm really quite rubbish about article creation. You are certainly welcome to provide some starting suggestions below if you'd like. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 00:23, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Removed external links
Rather than having more contractors added to the external links section, I've removed them all. They're here in case anyone cares to look at them in the future, and any other relevant contractor links can be placed here as well (so long as they directly relate to Masdar):
 * Foster + Partners information page
 * Masdar Headquarters by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
 * Consulting services performed by RWDI
 * Exclusive Photos of Masdar City
 * Masdar City Masterplan Reviewed Via Carboun
 * Abu Dhabi's Masdar Headquarters: The First Positive-Energy Building in the Middle East Via Carboun

— Huntster (t • @ • c) 03:01, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

If the contractor site is informative, shouldn't the link stay? RWDI's is the most informative, then Fosters + Partners. The Masdar Headquarters should be removed as it would be better on the Masdar Headquarters Wikipedia page. What shouldn't stay would be something like the brick laying contractor and other routine services. Looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links did encourage me to add this comment.209.183.143.99 (talk) 17:26, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Move article to Masdar
The project is called Masdar. In every other Wikipedia's language the title is not Masdar City. The title is Masdar.

--Urs.Waefler (talk) 07:21, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was no consensus to move. Skomorokh, barbarian  18:12, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Masdar City → Masdar — The official name is Masdar only, Masdar is a project, which contains more than a city. For instance there is Masdar Government, there is Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and there is Masdar City also. --Urs.Waefler (talk) 10:09, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. This article is mainly about the Masdar City. Although core of the project, Masdar has different meanings (it applies also to the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) and therefore should be disambiguation page as it is now. Beagel (talk) 20:06, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company is a part of Masdar. Have a look for instance at the German Wikipedia. There is a proper article. Masdar is the title.

--Urs.Waefler (talk) 06:31, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Masdar city - the true eco balance
There are many salutary words like "entirely solar energy and other renewable energy sources", "sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste", blah, blah.

But what is the true eco balance. Any numbers? How much fossile fuel has been used to construct the buildings, make the steel, the concrete, the solar panels, and so on. Where did the energy come from to drive the machines building the houses and the shiny shopping malls? Where did the energy come from the build the desalination plants?

Where will the energy come from needed to build replacement parts? Is there a hospital inside, or will the hospital be outside so that it is driven by fossile energy. What about food and waste, will it be provided / disposed of on-site? I guess not, so where does the energy come from to do that?

Sorry, this article raises more questions than answers. As long as I do not the the complete eco balance my guess is that Masdar city is nothing than a big quackery, supported by the solar and "green" lobbysists to make big money and attract tourists. You could as well take any city in the world, load batteries from fossile fuel plants, and to provide the energy supply for that city from the batteries for some years, and say "Look, we do not need any fossile fuels". --Combustor (talk) 20:33, 25 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Please find some sources that provide those figures, and I'll be happy to add the information to the article. To my memory, I've yet to see any published figures, official or other. — Huntster (t @ c) 22:04, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

potential resource
Masdar City, Castle in the Sand; A green utopia in the desert or just the United Arab Emirates’ latest exercise in urban excess? December 08, 2011, 5:00 PM EST by Peter Savodnik BusinessWeek  99.19.45.160 (talk) 23:59, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Why was this section removed?
Increased spending on low-carbon developments like Masdar City have been seen as a defensive response to the Arab Spring uprisings.

99.181.148.206 (talk) 03:20, 28 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Because Masdar was planned and executed long before the Arab Spring came about, and additionally because they're actually spending less on Masdar than initially estimated, and spreading it out over a larger number of years, so it doesn't really fit with the story. In any case, the only place Masdar is mentioned is in an image caption, so there's nothing really relevant there. — Huntster (t @ c) 04:09, 28 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Increased spending has been seen as ... doesn't not have to do with when something originated. 99.112.213.15 (talk) 05:27, 29 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Except, as the other sources here indicate, there hasn't been increased spending on this project; in fact, it appears, just the opposite. While they are still aiming to complete Masdar, they are spreading slightly less estimated money over a much longer period of time. It just doesn't add up. — Huntster (t @ c) 09:00, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Information missing from the article

 * What is the current population?
 * What will population be when construction is complete?
 * This community incorportates many features that, in theory, should reduce the cost of living of its residents. In practice, have its residents realized a lower cost of living, relative to traditional communities? 71.219.204.88 (talk) 19:09, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110807101833/http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/110127.html to http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/110127.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130828103448/http://masdarcity.ae/en/62/sustainability-and-the-city/transportation to http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/62/sustainability-and-the-city/transportation/
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