The district cooling market in the Middle East will exceed US$12bn by 2024, said the US-based Global Market Insights, noting that the increasing infrastructure development in the GCC countries and rising demand for cost-effective cooling systems are the main drivers for the growth of district cooling market
The study has forecasted the industry growth for the Middle East district cooling market from 2017 to 2024, including the recent trends, industry pitfalls, challenges and growth opportunities for the businesses. The report has forecasted the market size by production technique, by application, competitive market share and by country for the given time period.
According to the report, electric chillers accounted for more than 50 per cent of the district cooling market share in 2016. Apart from that, free district cooling market has also been forecasted to have growth due to the reduction of fossil fuel dependency. Ongoing development of high capacity projects including Bahrain Bay DC plant with an aim to reduce GHG emissions by utilising seawater as a cooling medium will further complement the industry outlook, as described by the report.
Hotels, supermarkets, shops, offices and hospitals will be the key areas for application, said the report. Increasing private investments towards the development of energy efficient commercial building structures to facilitate the daily needs of growing urban population will fuel the business growth. In 2015, Qatar Cool expanded its DC plant in Doha's West Bay neighbourhood featuring Qatar's tallest skyscrapers, high-end offices, housing luxury apartments and hotels.
Residential district cooling market is also expected to witness strong growth owing to escalating energy prices along with growing in urban population, according to Global Market Insights. In 2016, Emicool, announced its plan to increase its DC plant capacity to 500,000 RT by 2020 as a part of its Dubai Investments Park expansion.
The study further shows that due to the growing emphasis on energy conservation and demand for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings across the region are expected to impact business growth for the district cooling market. In addition, ongoing construction projects in Saudi Arabia?s prominent cities like Riyadh and Mecca led to the rise of the market.
According to the report, some of the notable players operating in the district cooling market include Emirates Central Cooling System Corporation (Empower), Stellar Energy, Emirates District Cooling (Emicool), DC Pro Engineering, National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed), ADC Energy Systems, Qatar Cool, Marafeq Qatar, Shinryo Corporation, and Siemens.
