In 2006, Abu Dhabi launched an ambitious project to construct the world’s first “zero-carbon” city: Masdar City. This talk investigates the construction of renewable energy and clean technology infrastructures in oil-rich Abu Dhabi as the era of abundant oil supplies slowly comes to an end. It explores the production of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and shows how the Masdar City project was instrumental for economic diversification in the United Arab Emirates, helping generate a “green” brand image. At the same time, it demonstrates how the renewable energy and clean technology infrastructures of Masdar City fueled an aspiration for the manageability of ecological problems, where business models and design solutions would contain and resolve climate change and energy scarcity without surrendering hope for increasing productivity and technological complexity. Focusing on iconic renewable energy and clean technology initiatives, this talk responds to the debates on whether Masdar City and its multiple infrastructures were successes or failures and examines the potential of evolving projects.
High School | Advanced Placement | Higher Education
Gökçe Günel is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, focusing on energy and climate change in the Middle East and Africa. Her latest book Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi, released in 2019, focuses on the construction of energy and clean technology infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, specifically on the Masdar City project, a $22 billion project to construct the “world’s most sustainable eco-city”. She is currently working on a second book titled Energy Accumulation, focused on a Turkish-built floating power plant in Ghana.
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