Green building is becoming a fad in Arab countries. We’ve all probably heard of the world’s first carbon neutral city Masdar being built in Abu Dhabi. Now Qatar, another UAE state — this one wealthy from natural gas –– is planning its own eco-city project.
A new, specially designed “carbon neutral” office building is being planned for the “Energy City Qatar” project. The building, being designed and planned by the Lusail development is heralded as being truly unique as well as a model and example for future developments, reports the Gulf Times.
The all-green design of Energy City Qatar will incorporate unique solar paneling which will provide lighting and other electricity needs for the project, including a special district cooling system that will provide cooling for the entire project.
Senior project construction manager Ashraf Kahlaf noted that the concept of such a building will help other projects create similar projects which will utilize renewal resources including the recycling of water, and soil that will be removed during the construction process.
Special chilling systems will be used in the data collecting systems center as well as energy efficient lighting systems. The recycled water, a by-product of the air conditioning system, will be used for irrigation of greenery inside and surrounding the buildings.
When completed, the entire Energy City project will eventually house 20,000-30,000 industry professionals, on 500,000 sq m of the entire 700,000 sqm site.
Kahlaf said that these features will result in Energy City being the first fully LEED or Leadership in Energy Environmental Design) concept project.
Similar projects are also being planned for countries like Libya and Kazakhstan, with the Qatar project to be the model on which the other projects will be based.
Although the construction will be higher in costs than ordinary construction projects, Kahlaf hopes to offset these costs by saving as much as 20% on electricity and 40% on water use (due to recycling) which should save in the long run around $116 per sq. meter, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
Kahlaf noted that Qatar is taking future environmental concerns “very seriously,” and that this project will be an example that other companies can use toward development projects involving building sustainability for future environmental concerns.
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
Energy City Qatar is the name of the project. Qatar is the state. Read the story.
Please! Please! Journalist!!! QATAR is A COUNTRY!!!! Is very unprofessional to write about something that you don’t even know where is!
could you plz check the title of the first photo from the right.there is no persian gulf…it is arabic gulf..arabic
Again, Qatar is not in the UAE!!