RIYADH — The energy efficiency initiative is one of the important policy agendas for the Kingdom in order to utilize the Kingdom’s precious hydrocarbon resources and also for addressing climate change that might potentially damage the Kingdom’s livelihood and ecosystem.

To comply with these issues, under the aegis of Prince Ahmed Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman, governor of Diraiyah, Saudi Electronics and Home Appliances Institute (SEHAI) hosted a workshop on home appliances energy efficiency in Diraiyah campus on Wednesday. The workshop was organized by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ), Nomura Research Institute (NRI), and Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME) and initiated by the speeches by Japanese Ambassador Tsukasa Uemura and SEHAI’s Executive Director Dr. Ismael Ali Mufarreh.

In fact, the Japanese government has been working collaboratively with the Kingdom in many areas of energy efficiency, while the Kingdom enacted many important energy efficiency policies for home appliances, namely energy efficiency standards and labeling system together with various activities in the field. In order to continue making progress of raising awareness of energy efficiency, this workshop aimed to nurture the Saudi young generation as the experts in the future, while cultivating new strategy to promote energy efficiency in the Kingdom through sharing technical experiences of Japan.

In the workshop, Abdullah Al-Anzi, building team, Saudi Energy Efficiency Program (SEEP) introduced their presentation, titled ‘KSA’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Policy and Programs in the Building Sector’, followed by the second presentation, titled ‘Introduction to Energy Efficiency Effort of Residential Sector, by a Japanese expert Naoya Sugai, international cooperation division at ECCJ. Then, the short technical presentations on home appliances’ energy efficiency by SEHAI trainees and panel discussion were facilitated by the initiative of Dr. Eball Ahmed, SEHAI’s educational general manager, with the attendance of panelists from SEHAI trainees, SEEP, ECCJ, and NRI. Finally, Sho Inokuchi, director at METI, Japan, welcomed the success of the workshop by concluding the importance of continuous awareness and practice of energy efficiency to the audience. — SG