Hassan Al Thawadi, the Secretary General of the Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), informed that the cooling technology’s benefits isn’t primarily restricted to being utilized at the World Cup stadiums.
In cooling technology, the stadium is cooled in a way which lowers energy consumption and keeps fans and players alike comfortable regardless of the temperatures outside.
On November 21, Qatar will be five years away from hosting the 2022 World Cup. However, despite it being branded a ‘winter World Cup’, the temperatures in Doha are touching close to 30 degrees Celsius during the day.
Al Thawadi was questioned on how would Qatar deal with the temperature issue as the weather doesn’t give one a feel of it being a winter World Cup per say.
“We have demonstrated the cooling technology in 2008 at Al Sadd. It was relatively efficient with regards to 15000 people and the temperature could go to 16 to 17 degree celsius. However, we wanted to develop and in May, we opened the second generation of cooling technology at the Khalifa Stadium.
“It had an increase of 60 per cent in cooling efficiency in a stadium which had 48000 fans for the Emir Cup final. This increase wasn’t limited by the fact that Khalifa stadium has a wide opening (at the roof) which is much bigger than at Al Sadd. It shows that we went far ahead and indication of the fact how we are addressing the weather issue.”
After the 2022 World Cup, a few stadiums have been identified which would continue to exist while a handful would be put in use in a manner that it will benefit the community. Al Thawadi mentioned that the cooling technologies employed in these two sets of stadiums would be different.
“The stadiums that will remain will have cooling technology and those which will not remain as stadiums after 2022 will have a primitive version.
“In 2014, we demonstrated two fan zones which used cooling technologies. That’s a commitment from our side to utilize the technology outside the stadiums such as opening areas, fan zones. If there is an issue with weather we can address it.
“We are also looking at cooling technology for agricultural use. One of the farmers is using it for green houses. We are looking at how we can use it in other areas outside of stadiums and sporting facilities.
“The weather outside isn’t too bad. The weather can be comparable to summers in a lot of countries in Europe. People can enjoy the beaches, they can enjoy the outdoor areas. The weather isn’t a significant concern for us.”