George Berbari

Dubai, UAE, 14 October 2018:  “It took me three years to author the book Energy Budget and during the time I saw myself as a student,” said George Berbari, CEO, DC Pro Engineering, while speaking at the Seventh Annual EmiratesGBC Congress. The importance of taking an energy budgeting approach to achieve net zero cities and smart buildings was one among the many topics covered at the Congress, where Berbari insisted that no city in the world can achieve carbon neutrality without cutting on emissions. Elaborating on the need to take action, he highlighted that HVAC and cooling aspects of a building contribute to 10% of total energy consumption and when retrofitted, it is important to self-finance. “Self-financing is crucial to carrying out any changes to energy efficiency,” said Berbari. In addition to this, he said that it is necessary to pay for utilities. “Paying for what is used creates a sense of awareness and responsibility towards energy,” Berbari added.

Pointing to the present as a stage of transition, Berbari said, “We need to plan how to capture hydrogen in electric batteries for future use and invest in transportation, roads and buses, only if it is going to be relevant in the future.” Technology is evolving and, who knows, he said, we might have air travel as our primary mode of transport. Here, Berbari added, understanding transition phases and what they mean is crucial for cities to reach the net-zero energy goal. Giving an example of Copenhagen, he said, “Copenhagen, a city which has a population of 583,000 residents, with 6,800 people per square kilometre, implemented carbon neutrality in 2017 and will be carbon neutral by 2025.” Elaborating, he said that 60% of energy neutrality was achieved by using biomass, chiller cooling from sea water, along with other measures taken to reduce energy consumption. Berbari added, “This is not all; cities in Massachusetts are also doing this, retrofitting is gaining momentum and this is a result not of wishful thinking, but of action.”