Just yesterday, I recieved a copy of an HVAC magazine of UAE region. Upon breezing through it, I found 2 particular words that retained in my mind - Green and District Cooling.
These 2 are the hottest topics in the Cooling industry today.
UAE is beginning to pull up its socks as far as energy efficiency is concerned.
First the announcement by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum about all buildings to bee designed to be green buildings from 2008. Actually it was after that announcement that i began to look into green building theories and came upon the USGBC(the US Green Building Council). Following that, during an ASHRAE meet, I found out that there is an Emirates GBC as well. Later I heard from a senior member of the UAE HVAC industry that the Emirates GBC has already been there for 2 years !!!! Just that very few people even knew about it until the 2008 green building announcement.
As far as I know, there are 2 promominent Green buildings in UAE - The first, is Pacific Controls Bldg (Platinum Rated) and the other is Wafi City (Gold rated).
Then there was the announcement of Masdar city, a Low Energy consumption, Low Carbon city in Abu Dhabi and a similar concept is being proposed in Ras al Khaimah.
My point is that, not only is there an awareness about Energy Efficiency in UAE, but with the overall positive attitude of the industry to accept the GREEN route, there is a huge scope for research and development of green technology in this region.
