Continuing its commitment to environmental conservation and sustainability, the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) has collaborated with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to support local and regional projects seeking energy efficient solutions. Towards this goal, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed virtually between GORD and EESL on Tuesday, 16 June 2020. Under the agreement, GORD and EESL will collaborate to provide to Qatari stakeholders the solutions and technologies in energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable transport solutions, carbon offsetting and carbon neutrality.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Dr. Yousef Alhorr, Founding Chairman of GORD said, “GORD is MENA region’s leading sustainability service provider with end-to-end solutions ranging from sustainability research, green building certification, climate advisory, carbon markets, accreditation and eco testing services. In its latest advancement to provide high quality implementation services, GORD has tied up with one of the world’s largest Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) named Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a public sector company of India. GORD, in collaboration with EESL, wishes to extend world class and low-cost energy efficiency, renewable energy and green transportation projects implementation services across various sectors of Qatari organizations. The potential of performance-based contracting model for energy services has been recognized worldwide for their low risks and cost efficiency and it is the right time for Qatari organizations to start making abundant use of such models in achieving their sustainability and climate mitigation objectives and to stay competitive and abate risks of implementation.”

Mr. Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director of EESL added, “We, at EESL, have been constantly exploring newer avenues for implementing energy efficiency initiatives, agnostic of sectors and geographies. This partnership with GORD is a giant stride towards tapping the immense potential for energy efficiency in the Middle East. With the use of our unique Pay-As-You-Save model, we will be able to carry out interventions such as large-scale streetlight retrofit projects, smart metering, deployment of electric vehicles and other energy efficiency projects, without the impediment of steep upfront investments from our partners. I believe that our expertise in handling the world largest energy efficiency portfolio and GORD’s local experience and technical skills in Qatar will synergize perfectly to create lasting impact in the region.”

According to the agreement, GORD and EESL plan to collaborate in manufacturing, supply and installation of energy efficient lighting systems. Another possible area of cooperation highlighted in the agreement is the deployment of electric vehicles charging infrastructure. With a promising potential, the global passenger electric vehicles sales jumped from 450,000 in 2015 to 2.1 million in 2019, according to BloombergNEF’s Electric Vehicle Outlook 2020. Currently, passenger EVs are represented by a size of 8.5 million which is expected to hit 116 million in the next five years. Within Qatar, the number of electric and hybrid cars is expected to reach as high as 10% of the total market by 2022, thus requiring more EV charging stations.

Other areas of cooperation covered in GORD’s MoU with EESL include the deployment of large-scale smart metering system, sustainable and energy efficient HVAC systems, renewable energy projects, sustainability consulting assignments and carbon neutral projects.