Solar City to Rise in Arizona
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel 
on 12. 7.07
An eco-city downtown, as envisioned by the Ecocity Builders organization.
Is the eco-city becoming the new standard in city building? These days, it seems, more and more cities are being built from the ground up for sustainability. China is building a sustainable city for half a million called Dongtan off Shanghai, Abu Dhabi has plans for a zero-waste, zero-carbon walled city called Masdar, and even London has plans for a mini eco-city. Now Arizona plans to build a "solar city" in Phoenix.
Over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and many experts believe that how cities handle sustainability issues will make or brake efforts to mitigate climate change. Cities are resource hogs, sucking in water, land, energy, agricultural goods and raw materials and spewing out various forms of pollution. The challenges facing city planners and authorities are complex and epic in scale, and until a few years ago the solutions were all theoretical.
The past few years, however, have seen a host of new plans for sustainable cities all over the globe. One of the major players in the field is the international consulting firm Arup, which has a hand in the planning of several of the projects. Another is William McDonough, green architect and author of groundbreaking book Cradle to Cradle. Here he is giving a talk about his design philosophy and plans for another new eco-city his firm planned in China.
According to Building magazine, Arizona’s new solar city will be planned for 300,000 inhabitants, and will feature a mix of land uses (apartments, businesses, shops, high-tech companies), in order to encourage walkability and carfree circulation. The city will be completely powered by the sun (Arizona’s most abundant natural resource) during the day, when energy surpluses will be pumped into the power grid. At night, when solar panels are inactive, energy will be drawn from the power grid.
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Don't forget Joel Crawford and Carfree Cities (www.carfree.com)
It sounds like a newer version of Paulo Soleri's Arcosanti . It looks as if all of our hard work , and dedication is paying off , fellow Arconauts, and kindred folks . Lets end , urban sprawl !
I applaud the use of the solar panels for day time power use. I do have to wonder where the electricity will come from for the night time “on the grid” use?
With energy efficient, green structures, perhaps the night time draw will be minimal.
Anything to reduce traffic is to be cheered. Last I was in Phoenix, traffic choked the roads to the point of madness. Would additional or expanded public transit be the picture as well? Time will tell, I suppose.
I am not sure of there are any decent breezes blowing in AZ, but how about batteries for night time energy use? If they are built in to enough structures, they might work?
Unfortunately, building a city of any kind in the deserts of Arizona is unsustainable due to lack of water.
amen.... lack of water... the sonora desert museum has a graphic next to their RIVER OTTER exhibit..... it shows what arizonas waterways used to look like.... can you imagine YOUR state losing 2 thirds of its waterways because of humans? start moving folks out of arizona!
They'll run out of water before this thing ever gets built and Arizonans are too cheap to pay a few cents extra for something a little more green like solar power. In ten years, parts of the greater Phoenix area will be a modern day ghost town.
They definitely need to get out of Arizona but who wants them?
I GUARANTEE this is going to be utterly unsistanable sprawl and is NOTHING like what's in that picture. Phoenix is the worlds most wasteful city, but slappng up solar panels is a no-brainer there and ought to simply be the law - not praised like some kind of innovation.
More importantly, Phoenix is so sprawling you need a car for every member of your family. There is nothing there but strip malls and chain-stores, and the water issue trumps all.
Down with Phoenix!!!
Wish we had someone with the vision to push for an ecocity here in Southern California. If they can do it in London and Arizona with far less temperate climates, they certainly could do it here. In Long Beach, where I live, we are blessed with mild winters and summers and plenty of sun for solar power. This would probably be one of the easiest places anywhere to do carbon neutral developments.
Wow! Does anyone here dumping on Phoenix actually live here? While we do have many issues to deal with "some" people are attempting to address some of them and most everyone who has commented on here makes it seem like I should jump of a bridge and end it all simply for living here.
Phoenix is a beautiful cities. These people dumping it must have issues in their own cities. I've worked in the White Tank Mountains in Arizona and although water is scarce I'm sure they can find a way. luckily it will fully create a light rail system. I think most environmentalist dream about stuff but don't understand what happens and the effects of trying to build an eco-city when the effects could also create more pollution if it isn't really sustainable.