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Dubai: Palm District Cooling (PDC) under the umbrella of Palm Utilities, is aiming for 1.1 million tonnes of cooling capacity by 2012, officials said in a statement yesterday.
The increase comes in direct correlation with the construction boom and government policies towards sustainable energy requirement.
Shafiq Khouri, managing director, told Gulf News that PDC is looking into working with other companies regionally and internationally for opportunities in other countries.
The company will have 149,000 tonnes of cooling capacity operational by the end of June, company officials said.
In 2005, the utility company's awarded projects reached 550,000 tonnes of cooling capacity. Estimates show that district cooling systems consume 40-50 per cent less energy than traditional air conditioning.
Sources say that for conventional air conditioning, energy consumption is at 1.7 kilowatts per tonne of cooling while district cooling takes about 0.9 kilowatt per tonne of water cooled.
"District cooling is a more efficient system and it releases the load of power requirement from the grid," Khouri said.
For the process of district cooling, huge amounts of water are required. "The makeup water requirement is in the range of 145,000 cubic metres per 1,000 tonnes per day," Khouri said.
The company collaborates with Palm Water, a sister entity, to use polished treated sewage effluent as the makeup water instead of using potable water.
"We reduce the waste generated from any development by better utilising the waste water generated from the recycling process," Khouri said.
He said the company is looking into partnership opportunities in India and other Gulf countries as part of their expansion plans, but did not provide details as nothing has been confirmed.
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