Abu Dhabi building world's first energy-positive building

It's very likely that we haven't written enough about Masdar, Abu Dhabi's eco-initiative to usher the world into a sustainable future. But now we just can't hold back. They've decided on a design for their headquarters, and it's going to be the first mixed-use, energy-positive building in the world.

That's right, its giant roof is covered in so many solar panels that the building will actually feed electricity into the grid, instead of pulling energy off the grid. And that's no small feat, because the building is gigantic at 1.4 million square feet.

In addition to one of the world's largest solar roofs, the building will also have integrated wind turbines, solar-driven cooling and de-humidification. The building will consume 70% less water than other buildings of comparable size.

The solar roof will actually be the first piece of the building constructed so that the panels will be able to power the rest of construction. That's pretty frikkin cool. But it's also going to cost more than $300 million.

This building is only the beginning though. Masdar is building an entire green city from scratch, and Masdar headquarters is just part of the first phase (slated to be completed in 2010.) The rest of the city will be completed by 2016, at a total cost of more tan $22 billion.

Good to see a nation who's wealth comes straight from petroleum leading the way into a world that will no longer be able to rely on it. Masdar Headquarters is going to be a beautiful and powerful example of what our sustainable future might look like.

Continue reading for high-quality renders of Masdar Headquarters.

Via Jetson Green