Panama Canal Authority puts its new Ford Focus EV into service.

AC Propulsion co-founder Alan Cocconi refuels auxiliary generator trailer for t-Zero electric car in late 1990s. Since then a Germany company has also demonstrated a battery trailer.

Nissan LEAF electric car reaches 25,000 sales milestone in USA in May 2013.

NEWS

THU

08-May-2008

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Building the World's First Zero Emission City

A city being built in Abu Dhabi will serve as a large-scale test for renewable energy.

By Kevin Bullis

Last week, in the harsh desert climate of Abu Dhabi, construction started on a city that will house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses but use extremely little energy, and what it does use will come from renewable sources. The initial building is a new research institute that the founders hope will be the seed for the equivalent of a Silicon Valley of the Middle East, only one centered not on information technology but on renewable energy.

The city, which is expected to cost $22 billion, will implement an array of technologies, including thin-film solar panels that serve as the facades and roofing materials for buildings, ubiquitous sensors for monitoring energy use, and driverless vehicles powered by batteries that make cars unnecessary. Indeed, the city's founders hope that it will serve as a test bed for a myriad of new technologies being proposed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

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