Qatar District Cooling Company (Qatar Cool), the sole distributors of district cooling services in the country, have announced the operational launch of its second plant in Doha’s thriving financial district – West Bay.

The plant is the third operational plant in Qatar for Qatar Cool, having launched its first plant in West Bay in 2006 and at The Pearl-Qatar earlier this year, said a top company official.

The Pearl-Qatar Plant is the world’s largest single integrated district cooling plant and will have a network capacity of 130,000+ refrigerating tonnes (TR) of cooling when the plant becomes fully operational next year.

The launch of a new plant in this commercial, financial and residential hub of Qatar will mean that a further one million sq m in this area will receive all their cooling needs from a central plant housing reliable and efficient industrial chillers that are monitored 24 hours a day by operation teams, said Fayad Al Khatib, general manager at Qatar Cool.

The Plant 2 in West Bay has a capacity of 37,000 TR and is connected through the network to Plant 1, which has a capacity of 30,000 TR.

The combined plants will serve a total of 46 towers in the area by 2011; this will include a mixture of Residential Towers, Office Towers, mixed use towers and a raft of new hotels that are currently still at construction stage.

"At Qatar Cool we are progressing quickly in implementing a comprehensive district cooling system that compliments the rapid growth of Qatar. Our district cooling system will allow for a greener, more economical way of cooling in the home, at work and in people’s leisure spaces," he noted.

"In the five years since Qatar Cool’s inception we have made rapid developments and achieved some remarkable milestones, these include the first integrated district cooling system in Qatar and the world’s largest single plant at The Pearl-Qatar," Al Khatib observed.

"Our continued expansion and green approach to cooling has brought with it the very latest pioneering technology, placing us firmly at the forefront of a rapidly growing industry," he added.

The addition of a second district cooling plant in West Bay, Al Khatib said, will allow for several environmental, economical and energy efficient advantages to the area and Qatar.

District Cooling works particularly well in areas of high density such as West Bay – the collection of several high tower buildings in close proximity allows for the central plant to service many buildings in the vicinity.

"District cooling systems mean less energy is used per customer; that in turn allows for less CO2 production, a major source of Global Warming. A conventional cooling system requires 1.7 MW of power per 1,000 TR, whereas a district cooling system uses just 1MW per 1,000 TR," he explained.

The infrastructure of a district cooling plant displaces peak power demand and reduces the requirements for the generation of new power; the system utilises its resources to ensure minimal impact on the environment.

“We are pleased to be using Qatar Cool’s district cooling system for our new building. We are always mindful of the impact any new building will have on the environment and also wish to offer our clients the latest, most economic and environmentally friendly service," said landlord Shihab AlAlawai.

"Using Qatar Cool means we no longer need bulky, wasteful equipment on site. We also have complete peace of mind that through continuous monitoring by Qatar Cool’s team we can be energy efficient and all maintenance is handled quickly with minimal disruption to our many clients," he added.-TradeArabia News Service