Qatar District Cooling Company (Qatar Cool) has signed a contract for the construction of its third plant in West Bay.

The signing ceremony held on Thursday at the St Regis Hotel was attended by Qatar Cool’s board members and senior management. Once completed in 2016, the plant will provide cooling to residential and commercial towers.

The plant, fourth in Qatar, was designed to produce 40,000 tonnes-cooling once completed, cutting down energy usage by 40% to 45% compared to traditional cooling systems.

With district cooling seen as an environment-friendly solution to address the nation’s cooling requirements, Qatar Cool chairman Badr al-Meer underscored the importance of the company’s expansion to Qatar’s long-term commitment to sustainable development.

He said the benefits of district cooling are being recognised by governments, developers, and end users. Not only does it reduce operating costs and building maintenance costs, it also helps reduce carbon footprints and offers other environmental benefits in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030, he added.

“Having completely sold out the capacity of Qatar Cool’s other plants in West Bay, which is serving 46 towers, the third plant is a response to the steadily growing demand for district cooling services,” al-Meer said.

He said developers are already being placed on the “rapidly-growing list” of Qatar Cool’s increased services, attracted by the numerous benefits of district cooling.

Significantly more cost effective over the long-term than conventional solutions, district cooling also cares for the environment, reduces CO2 emissions, consumes less energy, decreases air pollution, and combating global warming, al-Meer said.

In addition to its West Bay plants, Qatar Cool also operates the world’s largest district cooling plant or the Integrated District Cooling Plant (IDCP) at The Pearl-Qatar, which supplies 130,000 tonnes-cooling to the island’s 45,000 residents.

Qatar Cool was also recently recognised by Kahramaa’s “Tarsheed,” a national campaign to improve water and energy efficiency, for its energy conservation efforts in industrial buildings in Qatar.