Tabreed optimistic data centres will adopt district cooling amid sustainability push

Geothermal-powered cooling is viable option for tech industry, CEO says

Tabreed's stand at the World Utilities Congress at Adnec. Ahmed Ramzan for The National

Abu Dhabi-based National Central Cooling Company, also known as Tabreed, is optimistic that power-hungry data centres will soon tap district cooling services, which offer a sustainable alternative, its chief executive has said.

The utility's geothermal power-fed district cooling technology with its “inexhaustible source” will be an appealing option for data centres, which consume massive amounts of energy and generate a lot of heat, Khalid Al Marzooqi told The National at the World Utilities Congress in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Asked whether data centres will be game-changing for district cooling, he said: “Well, we hope so.”

Tabreed began using geothermal energy in December 2023 when it launched G2Cool in Masdar City, in collaboration with energy major Adnoc.

“When we started [the use of] geothermal [energy], we were targeting data centres because we knew that companies like Google and Amazon need … green data centres with the renewable energy sources,” Mr Al Marzooqi said.

“Since [data centres] don't have the ability to generate power and [there] are other players in the market to provide that, the option would be to go with geothermal. This is a great source of energy.”

Data centres are mushrooming globally amid the boom in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which requires the processing of massive amounts of data.

Increasingly, more sustainable and eco-friendly systems – including those powered by wind, solar and water – are being used by the technology industry to make data centres more efficient, in addition to reducing emissions and being able to recycle heat waste into producing more electricity.

• 

  Suhail Al Mazrouei, the UAE's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, addresses delegates at the World Utilities Congress in Abu Dhabi. All photos: Ahmed Ramzan for The National

• 

  Mr Al Mazrouei and Maria Panayiotou, Cypriot Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, at a session titled Looking ahead to Cop30: Strengthening the role of energy in updated national plans

• 

  Visitors at the stand for Spanish technology company Minsait. The congress is being held at Adnec

• 

  Mr Al Mazrouei delivers the opening speech at the event

• 

  A display for Taqa Transmission at the event

• 

  Dr Abdullah Humaid Al Jarwan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, gives a speech during the World Utilities Congress

• 

  Tabreed is among the companies with displays at Adnec

• 

  Dr Al Jarwan addresses delegates as the congress gets under way

• 

  Visitors at the Taqa Transmission stand

Unlike renewable sources such as wind or solar, geothermal energy is not bound by the availability of resources and “it's [available] 24/7 all year round”, Mr Al Marzooqi said.

“You have a typhoon, it doesn't matter, because geothermal is a subterranean source of energy.

“All it needs is just simply scaling it up so the option is there now for data centres … it plays very well with the narrative we had two years ago when we started [G2Cool]".

Tabreed is also keeping its options open for international expansion. At the moment, it is focusing on Asia, a market that Mr Al Marzooqi said is “very challenging” owing to the lack of knowledge about district cooling and regulations.

“The concept of district cooling is very small and minor, and the whole concept of a large district cooling company is not there, so you need to educate the customers. And … there's a bit of a risk entering a market which is unregulated,” he said.

The global district cooling market was valued at about $26.8 billion last year, with the Middle East and Africa having the lion's share at 34.6 per cent, data from Fortune Business Insights shows. The market is projected to rise by about 80 per cent to more than $48 billion by 2032.

“For the time being we are looking at maybe the private sector [in the UAE], something that is large enough because we need an anchor load,” Mr Al Marzooqi said.

“The UAE and the [Middle East] region is a large market, and [that's] where my main focus would be, more than international.”