As our communities become more urbanised, our cities need to get smarter to handle in a renewable and sustainable way this large-scale urbanisation to meet citizens’ needs and aspirations for an improved quality of life, reduced pollution, increased efficiency, better services and decreased costs of living. In this context the arab countries are rapidly urbanising, and the United Arab Emirates are taking the lead in managing solutions to meet a balance between economic, social needs and environmental goals.
One of the aims of Dubai Plan 2021 is to make Dubai a renewable and sustainable city. Under this vision, Dubai is building a couple of sustainable cities.
After the first attempt of Masdar City, the first real project is called “The Sustainable City”, a 46 hectare property development located 18 miles outside central Dubai that’s designed to produce more energy than it consumes.
Most of the city area is occupied by about 500 residential villas with solar rooftop pv plants. The villas are grouped into five residential clusters, connected to an urban farm that runs the length of the City. Each villa has two parking spaces shaded with solar panels plus additional spaces for communal electric buggies. The solar shaded car parks supply the electricity needed to power street lighting, electric vehicle charging stations, grey water treatment, and the urban farm for FREE.
The plaza of “The Sustainable City”, with more than 15,000-square meter mixed-use area, is positioned near the entrance of the city.
The city offers economic benefits including a full exemption from service charges, as well as a significant reduction in water and electricity bills. All this comes with social and sports facilities and educational and recreational activities, such as:
– The school, provided with a solar rooftop, will set a standard for world-class education that integrates sustainability through high standards and innovative teaching practices. Will provide an education that instils a love of learning, an appreciation of ‘green living’ and develops well-rounded, globally-minded, creative problem solvers.
– The Hospital will serve residents and visitors and will be comprised of two main facilities: a 1,500-square meter Rehabilitation Centre and a 1,430- square meter Sports Complex.
– The hotel architecture provides a low rise, unobtrusive design which nestles exquisitely within All waste water produced by the hotel will be recycled, and all material waste will be sorted at the source and recycled to meet the highest environmental, social, and commercial sustainability standards.
– The Sustainable City Equestrian Centre offers residents quality riding classes from three-years of age to adults up to the intermediate level. The centre will offer 30-minute lessons for beginners and 45-minute for intermediates, with 32 well-schooled Arabian, thoroughbred, and mix-breed horses.
– Tye farm: A flourishing park runs through the entire length of The Sustainable City, forming the community’s Central Green Spine. There are 11 biodome greenhouses running the length of the Central Green Spine, with a total capacity of over 3,000 square metres for urban farming.
The borders of “The Sustainable City” will act as the first line of defence against pollutants. With a remarkable 10-meter-high buffer zone running along the periphery of the development consisting of 2,500 trees scattered in multiple layers, purifying the air coming into the city will be a breeze.
The development is expected to cost $354 million and will be fully complete by 2019.
Enerray, through its branch Enerray Gulf Solar Energy Systems located in Dubai, can offer, in all the United Arab Emirates, the solar EPC services and italian quality that brings all over the world. Enerray Gulf can support the investor in all phases of the realization of the PV system, from feasibility studies to post realization phase. In this way Enerray,as one of the biggest solar EPC contractor in the world for rooftop PV plants, can contribute to the vision of making Dubai and the other Emirates where it is active, such as Abu Dhabi and Fujaira, completely sustainable and renewable places.
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