The task of building an entire city from scratch isn’t novel in Dubai — it seems there’s a new city announcement every half year or so.  Xeritown is one of the latest that I’ve learned about and it’s planned for Dubailand.  The idea behind the 60-acre city is that it will be designed to accommodate the elements of the desert rather than overcome them.  The form of the city follows a north-south axis to take advantage of the cool breeze coming in from the sea.  The buildings, rather than artificial and water intense landscaping, provide shading and structure. 

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The innovators of this new technology, if they get it into production, may just be the green building revolutionaries of tomorrow.  At the end of the week, MIT engineers published research of new technology showing that the sun’s energy could be harvested from a large area, such as a window, and concentrated at the edges by solar cells.  With this so-called luminescent solar concentrator, the potential for low-cost electricity seems almost within reach.  Technically, here’s how it works: 

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• 15 Future Wonders of Green Technology.
• Green architecture’s new goal: stylish sustainability.
• Green Olympics yield mixed record on green building.
• How bad is greenwashing, really?
• Higher education takes the lead in building green.
• Lawsuit takes on code’s energy efficiency requirements.
• Jones Lang LaSalle acquires developer of Green Globes. 
• CEOs think green is a long-term trend. 

*WIR = Week in Review; a Saturday showcase of excellent links.

Earlier this week, GM announced that they were adding the world’s largest, rooftop, solar photovoltaic power installation to its car assembly plant located in Zaragoza, Spain (a factory that manufactures Opel vehicles for sale in Europe).   When the project is completed in the fall of 2008, the solar installation will have 85,000 solar panels covering about 2,000,000 sf of roof space.   Bloomberg further reports that the $78.5 million installation will avoid about 7k tons of emissions per year.

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It looks like the nation’s first provider of green insurance coverage for the commercial sector has decided to expand that coverage into the residential sector.  Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company will be offering green coverage to homeowners who either own a green home or who want to upgrade their home with green features in the event of a loss.  So in a loss situation, the homeowners can rebuild their home and have it certified under the LEED system. 

Homeowners with green homes will be offered a five percent discount on their insurance premium.  In addition, homeowners will be able to rebuild and replace as follows:

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