GCC district cooling is booming

According to a MEED recent report, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) district cooling market has experienced rapid growth over the past 10 years and now has a capacity of just over 6300 MW. The GCC involves the 6 Persian Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Considering that district cooling technology can be 40% more efficient than conventional air conditioning, MEED forecasts that an additional 22 800 MW will be built in the GCC by 2015, and that the cost of this additional capacity is likely to be around USD 19.5 billion. The report also states that the UAE district cooling market is 5 years ahead of the rest of the GCC, although Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain have strong growth potential.