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Abu Dhabi Energy Company Aims for Solar-Powered Travel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, is hosting the first attempt at a round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aircraft, due to start from the emirate in March.

The Solar Impulse experimental flight program is one of a slew of international projects in which Masdar has invested, reinforcing its status as a pioneer in solar energy innovation.

“We wanted to demonstrate the viability of this revolutionary clean technology,” said Ahmad Belhoul, who took over as chief executive of Masdar, a unit of Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment arm, in March. “There have been successful internal flights, but the idea is to have global travel that is exclusively powered by solar energy.”

The plan is to span the globe, crossing the world’s major oceans in flights lasting up to five days at a time. The total trip is expected to take about four months.

“We have chosen Abu Dhabi as being the best and most suitable departure and return point for the round-the-world tour due to its climate, infrastructure, and commitment to clean technologies,” André Borschberg, one of the pilots and a co-founder of the Solar Impulse project, said in an emailed statement.

Solar power, abundant in the Persian Gulf region, still involves capital-intensive and experimental technologies. As the technology develops, however, the costs are falling fast, making large-scale energy-generating projects increasingly viable.

Solar energy is not Masdar’s only iron in the fire, however, and the company has had a busy year. It has invested in renewable energy projects around the world, most recently joining Norway’s Statoil and Statkraft to develop an offshore wind farm, Dudgeon, off eastern England. In September, Masdar acquired a 35 percent stake in the 402 megawatt project from Statoil, valued at 3.25 billion dirhams, or $885 million. When completed in 2017, Dudgeon will provide clean energy to more than 400,000 British households.

Dudgeon is Masdar’s second major investment in British offshore wind energy. It also has a 20 percent stake in the 630 megawatt London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

“In Europe, the volume of investment required over the next decade for security, climate change and technology is huge — roughly 1 trillion” euros, or $1.27 trillion, Antony Froggatt, senior research fellow at the think tank Chatham House in London, said in a telephone interview.

The scale of investment required “is in part why people are very welcoming to foreign investments,” Mr. Froggatt said: “Aside from developing new technologies, it also speaks to greater opportunities for political cooperation.”

This summer, Masdar also delivered a 550 kilowatt project in Samoa, a project that addresses the skyrocketing cost of diesel imports in Pacific countries as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Closer to home, Masdar has invested in the Middle East’s first utility-scale wind farm. The $290 million, 117 megawatt Tafila Wind Farm in Jordan will expand that country’s total power capacity by 3 percent when it goes fully operational, expected to be next year.

Masdar is also building the new headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. When completed, the 32,000-square-foot complex, designed as a test bed for sustainable living, will house Masdar itself and the international agency.

“We have a healthy pipeline for the year ahead and are looking at a number of new projects, particularly in North Africa,” Mr. Belhoul, the chief executive, said. “We are in the fortunate position to cherry pick.”

The company continues to work on the development of Masdar City, a concept green community that was initially planned as an elevated city with a personal rapid transit system that would serves as its sole transport network. That vision was brought back to earth, literally, by the recession, and the project is now going forward as an urban development on a more modest and relatively conventional scale.

“Whatever setbacks Masdar has had, it is still lighting the path for governments on how to commit their resources to 21st century infrastructural developments,” said Tim Woodcock, a director at Plant, a New York solar energy company. “And one message is clear: Think big.”

A version of this article appears in print on   of the National edition with the headline: Abu Dhabi's Energy Company Aims High for Solar Travel. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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