Skip to main content

Johnson Controls Lands Contract to Cool Great Mosque in Mecca

<p>Energy efficiency giant Johnson Controls Inc. has won a contract to provide an integrated building management system including state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning at the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudia Arabia -- the largest mosque in the world.</p>

Energy efficiency giant Johnson Controls Inc. has won a contract to provide an integrated building management system including state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning at the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudia Arabia -- the largest mosque in the world.

The project, which involves one of the bigger HVAC orders in Johnson Controls' 125-year history, is being conducted in conjunction with the latest expansion of the Holy Mosque at Makkah, better known in the west as Mecca. Also called the Grand Mosque and the Great Mosque, the place of worship is the holiest mosque for followers of Islam.

Built in the 7th century, the mosque has undergone several expansions. The most recent -- the most extensive so far -- enables the mosque to accommodate more than one million worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan and during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

As part of an agreement that was signed this past weekend in Saudi Arabia, Johnson Controls will furnish 27 multistage York centrifugal chillers that will make the expanded mosque one of the more energy efficient structures of its kind.

The chillers use environmentally friendly R134A refrigerant and provide 135,000. The workings of the chillers -- their solid state starters and variable-speed drive -- will integrate with a Johnson Controls Metasys building management system. In addition to energy conservation, the company's efficiency solutions for the mosque also support water saving.

Johnson Contols Chairman and CEO Stephen Roell said in statement that the signing of the contract is "the culmination of a long journey to win this unique and prestigious order -- and also one of the largest single HVAC equipment orders in the history of Johnson Controls.

"We are particularly pleased that these products, which are specifically tailored to meet the expansion requirements of the Holy Mosque, will contribute to a more efficient and sustainable environment that supports the comfort of the millions of people who visit this site annually."

The signing took place in a ceremony at Saudi Binladin Group headquarters in Jeddah involving Eng. Yahia Binladin, deputy chairman of Saudi Binladin Group, and Roell. The Saudi Binladin Group is a multinational construction and real estate conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the Binladin family.

The project at the Holy Mosque is not the first involving York brand equipment at a revered place of worship in Saudi Arabia. In the 1990s, six York Titan chillers were installed in the Prophet's Mosque in Medinah, Saudi Arabia.

Other large Johnson Controls projects in Saudi Arabia include work at the King Abdullah of Science and Technology University, King Faisal University, King Abdulaziz International Airport, Hajj Terminal, King Saud University, King Khaled University, Hadeed-Sabic and Princess Noura University for Women.

Top image CC licensed by Flickr user Al Jazeera English. Inset from contract signing ceremony courtesy of Johnson Controls.

More on this topic