How innovative sustainable infrastructure solutions reduce energy costs

Cutting-edge solutions in sustainable infrastructure can reduce energy consumption and drop energy bills by up to 25 per cent, turning our living and working environments into greener spaces that positively impact the nation’s carbon footprint.

That is the message Leading Hospitality Services (LHS) is bringing to businesses in the UAE through the latest innovations in building infrastructure. 

“More than 70 per cent of the world's energy consumption comes from buildings,” says Atul Kapil, Group General Manager of LHS, an Abu Dhabi-based sustainable infrastructure solutions company. “So it starts with this energy consumption – trying to reduce that, trying to make the buildings and the whole environment more green.”

Niche solutions

The way LHS achieves this goal is through unique products developed by its flagship partner i2Cool, such as iPaint for the walls and iFilm for the glass, sustainable surface cooling solutions that use nanoparticles to reflect solar radiations and reduce temperatures by up to 42 degrees Celsius.

“If you have this kind of solution to reduce the temperature of the building, you're ultimately moving towards reduction in energy bills,” says Kapil. “Because the needs are less, the consumption is less, the cooling loads are less, and that makes the whole building far more sustainable.”

In a recent case study at the Shaikh Khalifa Specialty Hospital, LHS put i2Cool’s blue iFilm on the vast glass façade spread across 650 square metres of its multistorey building, leading to a drastic reduction of energy bills.

“The hospital has its largest reception area for patients right behind the glass façade,” he says. “They were seeing solar impact from about 10am to 4pm every day, hammering customers with heat, ultraviolet light, solar radiations and glare. You can well imagine the amount of electricity required to keep the temperature down.”

With iFilm coating the glass, he says, there was a rejection of this solar impact and heat of close to 95 per cent, and a reduction of electricity bills by a whopping 20-25 per cent.

Not only does this technology reduce the heat within the building it also protects the environment surrounding it, by mimicking the earth’s behaviour in emitting the reflected radiation directly into space, rather than into the atmosphere.

“There is a particular frequency range at which the earth is able to emit all the heat it absorbs – the same happens with this solution,” says Kapil. “Hence, you’re able to take out heat from the inherent material, which could be glass, metal or concrete, and because of the temperature difference between the atmosphere and the earth, it gets emitted into the universe. So, you’re really looking at purifying the atmosphere that we are living in.”

Purifying the air

LHS’ technology also purifies the air that surrounds us in more ways than one. One of its most niche solutions, created by its other flagship partner AQMC, involves improving the air quality within offices, malls and homes by feeding clean, oxygen-rich air through the ventilation systems.

“What makes us unique is we don’t use any filters, water or chemicals. We’re actually creating oxygen clusters, which are fed through the air conditioning system. And when that goes into a room, you're breathing in pure oxygen,” he says.

This becomes especially important, he points out, in the hot summer months in the UAE, when we spend most of our time indoors and cannot step outside for fresh air for long stretches.

AQMC’s solutions to improve air quality includes odour control as well, which has wide application in our cities, from sewage plants to underground parking lots. “In some of the hotels where this has been implemented, you can't even smell cigarette smoke in a cigar bar. That's the kind of impact it has on air quality,” he says.

Changing mindsets

These technologies have the power to help businesses align closely with the UAE’s sustainability and Net Zero 2050 objectives, while at the same time cutting down on operational costs. For that to happen the mindset of business owners and property developers needs to change. They need to recognise the long-term cost-benefits of adopting sustainable infrastructure as part of their construction.

“When I talk to developers, they're focused on just building at the lowest cost, and then selling or leasing. I think you’re losing a big opportunity there,” he says.

“Based on the jobs that we have been doing, you could have a return on investment in between two and three years on average, sometimes as soon as 18 months, and if the solution is guaranteed for 10 years, you're looking at savings of seven to eight years, free of cost, just because of the implementation of such sustainable, niche solutions.”

Indeed, there is a larger need in the region as a whole for increased awareness and regulation, in order to pave the way for the wider use of such sustainable infrastructure solutions.

“If you look at the US or Europe, you will see a lot of regulations that are driving these sustainability solutions,” explains Kapil. “In Europe, for instance, you can't even rent an apartment if it is not graded on sustainability. Based on that sustainability level, you then rent it at particular rates. We don’t see a lot of this in our part of the world – we need more regulation to drive the message home.”

Broadening horizons

In the meantime, LHS continues to identify areas in which they can collaborate with i2Cool and AQMC to implement their cutting-edge technology most effectively, with pilot programmes exploring use cases for containers in the logistics and shipping industry, and tanks in the chemical industry. One of its most successful programmes, which is soon to enter commercial production, has been to increase the efficiency and lifespan of solar panels by reducing the temperature of the roof.

“We have done some studies that show we can increase the lifespan of these solar panels and improve their efficiency by 8 per cent, just by painting the surrounding area where the solar panels are installed, and reducing its temperature by 15-20 degrees Celsius,” says Kapil.

“LHS’ aim is to make the whole atmosphere in and around us greener for our day-to-day living basis,” he says.