Masdar City logs 10,797 MWh of renewable output as free zone passes 1,991 companies
The 2025 ESG report shows 9,906 MWh exported to the grid, a 42 percent cut in energy use intensity and 93.6 percent of operational waste kept out of landfill.
Masdar City produced 10,797 MWh of renewable energy in 2025 and exported 9,906 MWh of it to the grid. The exported electricity avoided an estimated 2,517 tonnes of CO2e, a saving the development compares to taking 584 petrol-powered passenger cars off the road for a year. Its free zone closed the year with 1,991 registered companies, and energy use intensity across the site fell 42 percent against the ASHRAE 90.1-2007 baseline.
The figures sit in the development's 2025 ESG report. Ahmed Baghoum, Masdar City's chief executive officer, said sustainability should be measured by results actually delivered, not by ambitions alone.
Cooling load designed down before a single panel is fitted
Generation is only part of the energy picture. More than 11 MW of photovoltaic panels are installed across Masdar City, but much of the demand reduction comes from the fabric of the place. Buildings, public spaces and streets use shading, insulation, orientation and passive cooling to hold consumption down. The downtown grid is angled to funnel the prevailing desert wind through shaded streets, which lowers street temperatures and trims the cooling needed inside.
The net-zero building portfolio grew during the reporting period. Its most visible addition is the Masdar City Mosque, which opened to worshippers in 2026 and is the first net-zero energy mosque in Abu Dhabi. Rooftop and car-park solar arrays generate enough on-site power to cover the building's annual energy needs. Passive design, district cooling and water recycling carry the rest of the load.
Other projects named in the report include Connect Park, Al Falaj Plaza and an agrivoltaics installation that produces solar electricity and food on the same plot of land.
Waste, materials and open space
Masdar City diverted 93.6 percent of operational waste from landfill in 2025 and 93.5 percent of construction waste. Steel, concrete and timber are reused and recycled, and the development works to cut waste from both construction and building operations. Lower-carbon materials are preferred where they are available: about 90 percent of the aluminium in many Masdar City buildings is recycled, and low-carbon cement and responsibly sourced products are used where possible.
Parks and open spaces covered 295,089 square metres in 2025. Those public areas are built for health, recreation and community activity rather than as leftover gaps between buildings.
Free zone adds jobs and a foothold in China
Employment in the free zone grew 33 percent over the year. The zone opened its first international representative office in China, extending its reach outside the UAE, and collected nine specialised awards during 2025. Its companies work in AI, life sciences, smart mobility, agri-tech, energy and space technology.
The wider innovation cluster includes the UAE Space Agency, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Insilico Medicine, Halia Therapeutics, Gene Bio AI, CycloTech and AKT Health. Masdar City also hosts The Catalyst, an investment and accelerator platform focused on clean technology.
Procurement leaned local. Suppliers inside the country provided 97.3 percent of the products and services Masdar City bought in 2025. The organisation also introduced a procurement platform built in-house, replacing five separate systems with one, with the aim of giving internal teams, suppliers and partners a faster and more transparent process. Digital tools and AI sit behind the change.
On staffing, every employee completed the annual Code of Ethics training. UAE nationals made up 52 percent of the workforce and women 27 percent. Staff took part in leadership-development, resilience and digital-skills programmes during the year.
Why district-level rules matter
Most green building claims stop at the front door of a single tower. Masdar City applies its standards across a district, which is harder to organise and harder to verify, and it requires every new building to reach at least a 3-Pearl rating under Abu Dhabi's Estidama Pearl Rating System. The city also holds one of the world's largest clusters of LEED Platinum buildings. That combination is what links the environmental numbers to the commercial ones: the free zone's pitch to AI, life science and space tenants rests on infrastructure and research capacity, and the ESG strategy is tied explicitly to Abu Dhabi's economic diversification and to the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.
Outside the UAE, Masdar and Endesa began battery projects in Spain worth $28.3 million that add 120.34 MWh of storage.
