Qatar district cooling company Qatar Cool has won two major industry awards in the United States.
The International District Energy Association (IDEA) 2009 District Energy Space awards, Beyond North America category, saw Qatar Cool receive the Gold Award, first place for number of buildings committed to district energy during 2009 and the Silver Award for the total building area committed to district energy. Qatar Cool contracted 44 new buildings in 2009, serving 11,060,237 sq ft.
Qatar Cool General Manager Mr. Fayad Al Khatib was in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 15 June 2010 to receive the awards at the 101st IDEA Annual Conference.
"Qatar Cool is very proud to have received these awards as it is wonderful recognition of the commitment our board and staff have made to provide a quality, world-class service to our customers and the people of Qatar," said Mr. Al Khatib.
President of IDEA Mr. Rob Thornton said that district energy system growth has been good, despite an extremely challenging global economy.
Mr. Thornton said: "Our members reported that 95 customer buildings in North America totaling 27,440,426 sq ft of building space were committed or recommitted to district energy service during 2009. That compares with 126 buildings and 39,897,947 square feet during 2008. Beyond North America (including the Middle East) an additional 41,113,744 sq ft and 102 buildings reported for 2009, compared to the 2,815 buildings and 281,870,939 sq ft during 2008."
The accomplishments of Qatar Cool were also showcased at the IDEA conference with Mr. Al Khatib addressing a plenary session on Large Scale District Cooling Systems in Canada, the United States and Qatar.
Mr. Al Khatib described the significant progress Qatar Cool had made in its 5 year history, supporting Qatar's infrastructure development servicing customers in West Bay and The Pearl-Qatar.
He told the conference that while Qatar had one of the largest carbon footprints per head of population in the world, district cooling schemes will contribute to significant reductions of that footprint, through considerable electricity savings and reduced impact on the environment.
Qatar Cool will have the largest district cooling plant in the world, when its newest plant on The Pearl-Qatar is inaugurated in November 2010.
IDEA supports the growth and utilization of district energy as a means to conserve fuel, increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions to improve the global environment. The 5th IDEA International Conference will be hosted in Doha in November 2010.
