IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, is an inter-governmental organization which aims to promote “the adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, and facilitating access to all relevant renewable energy information, including technical data, economic data and renewable resource potential data,” (as stated on the IRENA website).
In the two years since its foundation, 148 states and the EU have signed the IRENA statute, and 42 countries have ratified it. Any UN member can join IRENA, and the agency hopes one day to include every country in the world.
In 2009 Abu Dhabi was chosen to host the headquarters of the agency, stressing the United Arab Emirates’ leading role in the field of renewable energy.
The headquarters of IRENA will be located in Masdar City, a city–appropriately enough–which aims to be the first in the world to run entirely on solar and other types of renewable energy, with a sustainable, zero-carbon and zero-waste ecology. In an interview in Gulfnews.com with Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, CEO of Masdar, the plan is to complete the city as well as the IRENA headquarters by 2013.
MASDAR, established in 2006, focuses on the research and deployment of renewable energy solutions and clean technologies. The company consists of three branches: Masdar Carbon, Masdar City and Masdar Power, with an investment arm called Masdar Venture Capital. It is also affiliated to the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the world’s first graduate-only academic institution focusing on research into alternative energies and sustainable technologies.
Building the first carbon-neutral city, at a projected cost of around US$22 billion, is the dream of architects Foster and Partners. Masdar City will be situated 17km from Abu Dhabi. The project was conceived by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (MASDAR), owned by the Mubadala Development Company, an investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government. This means the major investor in the project is Khalifa Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the UAE and Emir of Abu Dhabi.
The city will help Abu Dhabi to realise its dream of becoming the renewable energy capital of the world by functioning as a laboratory for research, development, testing and implementation.
The project aims to build a city of 40,000 inhabitants, where 80 percent of water can be recycled, reducing water production by 75 percent, while one million tonnes of carbon will be saved annually, and 70 percent of energy demand reduced.
Narrow streets will create shaded walkways to cut the use of air-conditioning and artificial lighting. Cars will be banned and replaced by a personal rapid transit system (PRT), a subterranean system using cars powered by solar batteries. Modern technologies will be combined with traditional Arabic architecture and urban planning in the city.
According to MASDAR’s CEO, “Abu Dhabi is evolving its global energy leadership through the MASDAR initiative, demonstrating long-term commitment to renewable energy for a sustainable future.”
Obstacles to the project have included the unexpected and sudden resignation of Hélène Pelosse as first interim director-general of IRENA, after only 15 months and despite recent declarations that she intended to lead the organization in the longer term.
No official comment has been made, but as of October Adnan Z. Ameen, a Kenyan working with the UN, has been assigned the position of deputy director-general of IRENA.
