Today I met a Billionaire

[ARon]

His name is Ralph R. Peterson. I don't know what the R stands for. I don't even know if he is in fact a billionaire but he is the CEO and Chairman of the new company that I work for, ok ok intern for. I won't go into too much detail about what I do cus this shit ain't about me lol. The company is an engineering firm named CH2M Hill. Last year they posted revenue of $6.4 billion... The company is privately owned by it's employees so if I get on there full time free VIP for everyone at streethop... yeah right. Anyway they have projects all over the world but some main ones are expanding the Panama Canal, military bases is South Korea, the Mumbai Airport and some other significant shit.

What I want to talk about is the company is also doing work for the Olympics in London and also overhauling London's nasty ass Victorian sewer system. Sabotage is possible you across the ponders, don't fuck with me.

Ok finally, the real point of this thread... I talked to Ralphy for about 3 minutes in which he asked about my future yadda yadda and then told me about his pet project, Masdar City. A $22 billion project that will be the world's first zero-waste and zero-carbon sustainable city, it's in Abu Dhabi.

Masdar City

Masdar City Headquarters

Go to Google Images to see more greatness of this place. Check out the Masdar website as well.

Amazing stuff. And if you already knew about this place then lucky you

 

[S O F I]

So a city within a city?

 

[Bender]

i poo carbon

 

[Casey]

I remember them doing some major construction work at Mumbai Airport last time I was there.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

there's got to be some kind of waste - must be impossible to use resources without any wastage.

 

[masta247]

We're happy with you

There are already "ecological" towns in Europe.

 

[Preach]

there's got to be some kind of waste - must be impossible to use resources without any wastage.

If you consider how much waste there is today around the world, and then picture an ideal scenario where all the world's cities were like this one, we're talking a significant improvement even though there may be some waste. That's just putting it on the edge though.

Ihaven't read about this project in great depth, but I agree with you. Rhere's no way there can be 0 waste, or it seems hard to believe at least. On the other hand, if it's powered by solar power or a turbine, there's not much waste to begin with to produce electricity. Then it's just a question of how much electricity can be produced. It's peculiar that it's being built in such a warm place. Imagine that shit up here in Norway. You would need a lot more power to keep it warm throughout the year, and maybe it wouldn't be able to sustain itself in "harsher" climates.

 

[Elmira]

Ralphy?

Sure it is about you, I'm curious to know what your role is in the company in this intern position. If I had such a coveted spot I would brag about it.

 

[masta247]

Solar power and wind turbines these days could satisfy most basic needs for electricy. They are quite expensive considering that one conventional power plant of a similar size generates a few times more power and at that point most people don't care about ecology. They care about business.

Here in smaller towns it was quite popular to place solar panels on roofs and/or small wind turbines in gardens. That could power most devices (lights, tvs, fridge, computers etc.) except those that use really a lot of power over a short period of time.
Soon after that the law here has changed. Now people have to give away all the energy they produce to local power plants and the only thing they get in exchange is a slight reduction in taxes for the energy they get back from the power plant.
In other words people produce the energy, give it away and get energy from a convencional power plant with a small discount. Obviously that's quite pointless and means a huge waste. But not for those who get money from that power plant.
It means that solar power is not a great idea business-wise and could harm shitloads of people.
I think there's a similar situation with cars(gas) and free software but that's another story.

Personally years ago I bought a small 1st gen solar panel with everything needed to have a mini solar charger and a battery. It was about 50$ or so and it was intended just for experiments.
Fun thing is that after 5-6 hours of charging in the summer it can then fully charge my laptop, mobile phones and pda.
Oh the panel is about 50cm x 20cm.