Abu Dhabi's planned Masdar City, which is to be the world's first powered solely by renewable energy, now has its first residents — students at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.
The planned city, whose name means "source" in Arabic, will cost 22 billion dollars (15.9 billion euros), cover six square kilometres (2.3 square miles) and will eventually house 40,000 residents, its website says.
It is to be located about 17 kilometres (roughly 10.5 miles) from downtown Abu Dhabi. But for now, Masdar Institute's buildings are the only to have been completed, while a few others have been begun.
From a distance, the campus appears to be a single large, reddish-brown structure rising from the desert, with a small forest of construction cranes to one side. But up close, the details are striking.
The institute's Knowledge Centre, which houses its library, has a curved roof with solar panels, and a front that is almost entirely made up of windows.
