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Dany Safi's input to the Middle East's district cooling industry is a matter of fact. He is widely accepted as the man behind the creation and development of the sector in the region and has won several international awards in recognition of this, including the International District Energy Association's (IDEA) Unsung Hero and Global Pioneer Awards.

He was also the first Arab to be elected onto the IDEA board of directors in its 94-year history. And at the time of writing, his appointment as the first regional manager of IDEA's Middle East Chapter is due to be confirmed at a regional conference in Dubai in late October.

But achieving such success has not been easy. Simply gaining acceptance of the district cooling concept was the first challenge that had to be overcome. "Convincing the market [of the viability of district cooling] took a lot of effort and work," stresses Safi.

One of the first moves for Safi and his team was to carry out financial and technical analyses of the local markets to demonstrate the possibilities to future clients. "People are afraid of new ideas and concepts, they will always resist the implementation of new things. It's human nature," states Safi. "Those were the main obstacles [to the uptake of district cooling], but I think we have crossed that time now," he laughs. "I look back and smile - now everybody wants to be in this business."

And Safi has reason to smile: in less than a decade the Middle East's district cooling sector has grown from a virtual standing start into a multi-billion dollar industry, with Tabreed as one of the main providers in the region. The industry's growth is also currently outstripping that in North America, the home of IDEA's headquarter by a ratio of 2:1 and US $30 billion of investments are predicted for the sector over the next ten years.

Lebanese Safi is an engineer by training, studying a BSc in electrical engineering in France, followed by a MSc in mechanical engineering in the UK. He began his working career with a real estate development firm then joined global air conditioning firm Carrier. He spent several years with Carrier, where he was responsible for projects worldwide in locations varying from the USA to Qatar, before beginning his ventures in the field of district cooling.

"I'm basically an engineer and I got involved in the business of district cooling by coincidence to a certain extent," explains Safi. His involvement in the sector began around 17 years ago while he was based in Abu Dhabi with Carrier. He explains: "We were working on a project that required a large [air conditioning] installation and we found that it was difficult for us to commission the equipment because of a lack of electricity at that time.

"I had an idea to start using district cooling driven on natural gas; that was the original proposal, to use natural gas as an alternative energy. One of the other main reasons for suggesting such an idea was basically to save energy and help to conserve the environment," he adds. The concept wasn't new stresses Safi, it was merely it's implementation in the region that was unusual. "The district energy concept is 100 years old," he states. "It started in heating in the late 1800s, then the concept of cooling was started in 1922...in the US."

Getting the client to accept the concept was only the first step, the implementation of the technology required a structure and legal entity; this was developed over the following years. "It took us years to develop this business until we formed the company Tabreed in June 1998; it wasn't overnight," stresses Safi. During this period of formation Gulf Energy Systems was also created, a company that is now 100% owned by Tabreed.

Business growth

Tabreed was listed as a public stock company in 1998. Today it has almost 20,000 shareholders and is one of the largest district cooling providers in the world. In less than ten years the number of direct employees has risen from three to more than 460.

This level of growth is expected to continue for both Tabreed and the region's district cooling sector in general. The boom in the Middle East's real estate industry is playing a principal role: "The whole region is growing; it's a young region. And of course the growth in the real estate market and developments [are important because] these are the main places where district energy can be implemented," Safi states. "The growth is considered phenomenal, while in the West those markets are more or less becoming mature, so we don't see as many developments [under construction] at the same time," he adds.

Although new projects are a primary target for the industry, district cooling systems are now also being installed in existing developments. "This concept can be implemented at any time [in the life of a development]," assures Safi. The sheer volume of work available in the sector has meant the arrival of new firms into the market, which Safi sees as a good indication of the acceptance of district cooling in general.

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