Saudi Arabia: RetrofitTech KSA has announced that it will hold a two-day specialised seminar on October 24-25, 2016, during which it will explore the challenges and opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s emerging retrofit and refurbishment industry to achieve energy efficiency goals.

The event, the communiqué said, will discuss the upcoming opportunities, strategies and challenges for retrofitting and refurbishing of existing buildings to reduce electricity and water usage. Furthermore, it said that the event will give an update on Saudi Arabia’s national energy efficiency programme, and gather regional and global industry experts to share case studies on the mechanisms and strategies to achieve the desired reduction in energy demand and increase in ROI.

The communiqué highlighted that as Saudi Arabia continues to diversify its economy beyond oil exports, in order to conserve the resources for the future generation, a key focus of the government and industry leaders is to reduce the energy intensity growth through policy, management and technology measures.

Electrical energy consumption in Saudi Arabia, the communiqué informed, has increased sharply during the last two decades due to rapid economic development; while an estimated 73% of the electric energy generated in the country is used for operating buildings, 65% of this energy is consumed by air conditioning. Peak loads are expected to approach 60GW by 2023, and the total investment needed to meet this demand may exceed USD 90 billion, added the communiqué.

The communiqué revealed that savings on air conditioning can result in the return on investment equivalent to 400–500MW per annum of generating capacity, which is savings of USD 0.25 billion per annum. In fact, energy conservation policies for sustainable development could result in reducing the electricity forecast demand by 5–10%, equivalent to 3–6GW of additional capacity, which is a possible USD 1.5 to three billion saving over the next 20 years, it added.

The communiqué informed that further information about the seminar is available at: www.retrofittechksa.com.