It might seem ironic that the oil-rich Middle East also holds nearly half of the world's renewable energy potential -but last month the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, officially inaugurated Shams 1, the largest concentrated solar power plant (CSP) in the world. The plant was designed and developed by Shams Power Company, and it cost US$ 600 million and took three years to build. It's owned by Masdar, Abengoa Solar and Total. This gargantuan power plant covers almost 2.5 million square meters - the equivalent of about 285 football fields. According to Masdar, it will generate enough electricity to power 20 thousand homes in the United Arab Emirates. It will also displace 175 thousand tons of CO2 per year - the equivalent of planting 1.5 million trees or taking 15 thousand cars off the road. Though Abu Dhabi has made a considerable investment in CSP, key members of Shams Power Company foresee most of the country's renewable energy coming from solar photovoltaic systems to meet its 2020 energy target of producing 7% of its total energy from renewable. This is because photovoltaic systems are cheaper, faster to build and are able to be installed in more locations than CSP systems. It is good to see a region so rich in oil look to grow its renewable energy potential. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar states, "the inauguration of Shams 1 is a breakthrough for renewable energy development in the Middle East. With the demand for energy rising exponentially, the region is undergoing a major transformation in how it generates electricity. In fact, the Middle East is poised for major investments in renewables, and Shams 1 proves the economic and environmental advantage of deploying large-scale solar projects."

Whenever Dubai thinks of doing something it definitely believes in doing it big and doing it beautifully different. And this time, Dubai has opened gates for the world's most beautiful garden, "Dubai Miracle Garden". The world's largest flower park - Dubai Miracle Garden total area of over 70 thousand square meters and a length of footpath 4 kilometers includes special vertical and horizontal landscaping designs, each area has special design. The park has collected more than 45 million flowers of 45 varieties, many of which first brought the Presian Gulf. Park has already been informally as "an oasis of color" because in its territory are the flowers of 60 different colors. One of the most notable pieces in the park was created from flowers portrait of the founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed ben Sultan Al Nahyan, surrounded by seven huge hearts, symbolizing the seven emirates. Park expects to win the world famous for its "flower pyramid" height of 10 meters and an area of 144 square meters, as well as a wall of flowers with height of 3 meters surrounding a park. It is currently batting for a Guinness Record for the world's longest flower wall with a one-km circumference. A second phase of the project is set to see new retail, restaurants, souvenir shops, plant nurseries and a multi-storey car park and work will start on site in the middle of the year.

Abu Dhabi staked its claim as the cultural capital of the Middle East on January 8 with the final go-ahead for its most eagerly anticipated landmark project. The main contract for the Louvre Abu Dhabi was awarded to the Dubai builder Arabtec. Construction of the US$ 653 million development will begin immediately and the new museum is expected to open in 2015. The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which arose out of a 2007 cultural partnership between France and the United Arab Emirates, won't look anything like the lavish 12th century building where Louis XIV once lived. The mushroom-shaped building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Prize winner, is slated to be part of a cultural district planned for Saadiyat Island. The architecturally stunning complex will consist of 64,000 square meters of pavilions, plazas and canals, two-thirds of it shaded by a 180-meter wide cupola that appears to float in mid air. The new museum will form the heart of the Saadiyat Island cultural district alongside the Zayed National Museum planned to open in 2016 and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi the following year. The construction challenges are considerable. A 180-metre wide cupola supported at just four points around its perimeter will shade two-thirds of the museum campus. Perforated to cast an intricate "rain of light" below, the dome will be made of more than 100,000 individual elements in 10 layers that will overlap to form a pattern inspired by Islamic geometry and the palm fronds of traditional Arish dwellings. The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be housed in 9,200 square meters of gallery space spread across almost 30 separate buildings. Planned like a town, these range from one to three storey in height and are linked by a network of gardens, plazas and watercourses inspired by traditional Arabian falaj. The scope of the architecture and public areas may sound prodigious, but these pale in comparison to the design, engineering and infrastructure challenges that have been overcome to get the project to this stage. The museum requires a 10-metre deep waterproof basement for emergency access and plant rooms that measure 31,500 square meters. In 2009, walls were buried in the sand 40 meters deep to ensure the construction site stays watertight. Once works are complete, these will be removed to allow seawater to flow between the museum precincts in a series of canals. In 2010 alone, contractors drove 4,536 piles into the ground - 2,958 steel and 1,578 concrete - the length of which, if put end to end, is the distance from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Most of this work has gone unnoticed. The only visible sign of progress thus far has been a curious, wedge-shaped chamber on Saadiyat in which a 1:33 scaled model of the museum's canopy, made of 15,000 aluminum and steel parts, has been light-tested to ensure its performance. But behind the scenes an international team of architects and engineers has been working for almost five years, testing the dome for factors including its ability to cast the right type of shade, and its resistance to wind, explosions and fire. Most of the preparatory work associated with the Louvre Abu Dhabi is already complete. All that remains is the small matter of delivering the more tangible parts of what will be one of the early 21st century's most anticipated architectural projects.

Damac Properties announced its first major new product launch since 2008, with 295 premium serviced hotel apartments in the Burj area of Dubai, reported the Arabianbusiness. The Distinction will be a 195 meter, 53-storey tower with views of the fountain, mall and the Burj Khalifa, the world's largest tower. The developer said in a statement that the launch was on the back of "improved market sentiment" in the emirate. The Distinction will "serve the very top top-end luxury sector of the emirate's real estate market". Dubai is in the grip of a new era of real estate expansion following the announcement of the multi-billion dollar Mohammed Bin Rashid City. "Luxury projects in prime locations are driving the UAE property resurgence and The Distinction will provide the quality of finish and service expected at this end of the market," said Niall McLoughlin, senior vice president, Damac Properties. Main contractor, ANC Contracting, has already started work on the project, which is set for completion in the first quarter of 2015 and will be a mix of studios, one, two, three and four-bedroom penthouses. The tower will include a luxury spa, a gymnasium and swimming pool. Damac has so far completed 37 buildings across the UAE, with 7,817 units and nearly 14,000,000 sq ft of space.

Seeking to cement its position as a Middle East center for transport and tourism, Dubai has unveiled several grandiose construction projects that bear some of the hallmarks of the debt-laden boom years that nearly brought the emirate to its knees, reported The Wall Street Journal. Last month, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered the construction of a new city development named after himself, a project that could cost $10 billion, according to some estimates. It envisages 100 hotels, the world's largest shopping mall, parks, art galleries and exhibition centers. Soon after, he announced plans for a $2.7 billion leisure complex of five theme parks. Dubai also is pushing its candidacy to host the World Expo in 2020, the first time a city in the Middle East would host this event, which would involve the construction of an exhibition center on the outskirts of the emirate. While Dubai is enjoying an economic recovery fueled by a surge in key areas such as trade, tourism and transport, it still has to repay roughly $100 billion of debt from the previous property boom, which ended in 2008. The plans raise questions about how the ambitious construction will be financed and whether it will lead to more oversupply in a still-fragile property market. "Dubai was built with unbridled vision, and the recently announced aspirations will be tempered by lender appetite, competition for finance in other regional markets and increased levels of diligence by more experienced investors," said Rizwan Shah, managing director, corporate finance at Deloitte Middle East. "Funding sources and structures for Dubai will need to be different than those that were used precrisis," Mr. Shah said. During the boom years between 2004 and 2007, various Dubai-related entities expanded too quickly on cheap debt provided by both local and regional lenders. Once the global crisis set in, property prices in the emirate plunged as much as 60%, leaving banks with a debt hangover they still are wrestling with. When Dubai developer Nakheel was unable to pay back a $4.1 billion Islamic bond in 2009, Dubai had to turn to its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi for a $10 billion loan to stay afloat. Some are starting to worry that Dubai is repeating the mistakes of the past by stoking another property boom. "Have we learned? We all say we have, but a lot of people are doing the same thing that they were doing three to four years ago," said Peter Jodlowski, chief financial officer at the Emirates Investment Authority, one of country's wealth funds, at a recent financial conference. "So in five years' time, we'll all be asking: How did that happen?" He and other attendees at the conference were discussing corporate governance in the region and the role banks had played during the buildup to the crisis.