Tabreed and IFC to set up a new investment platform

ABU DHABI: The National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, are planning to establish a district energy investment platform in Singapore. The platform will invest in district cooling, trigeneration and cooling as a service offering with primary focus on India followed by other South East Asian countries.

The joint venture aims to build on Tabreed’s ongoing development activities in India following the establishment of its wholly owned subsidiary in the country. It will also seek to provide more energy efficient end to end cooling as a service offering through an outsourced utility model for real estate developments, new urban masterplans and ongoing redevelopments across target cities.

Energy demand in South East Asia is growing twice as fast as the rest of the world. In India, now the world’s third largest energy consuming country, cooling continues to be the largest contributor to this growth with the government’s India Cooling Action Plan forecasting an eight- fold increase in demand through to 2038. The commercial real estate sector alone estimated to add 100 million refrigeration tonnes in capacity during this period.

Globally, district cooling and heating utilities have been providing more costeffective low carbon pathways for cities to meet their energy needs, also accelerating the transition of green buildings to carbon net-zero buildings.