Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy is developing and improving environmentally friendly cooling technology that will allow soccer to be played in the country year-round after the 2022 World Cup.
The following ten cooling methods are part of an integrated approach in the design of different facilities and venues from concept design phase, to ensure they leave a lasting legacy for their communities to use and enjoy the benefits of sport:
- Solar shading
By building in such a way as to keep not only people, but also specific areas of a building out of direct sunlight, it’s possible to reduce the heat absorbed by a structure by as much as 85%. This can range from strategically planting suitable vegetation around buildings to selecting specialist materials than limit solar transmission. - Natural ventilation
Throughout its history, Qatar has sought natural ways to keep cool, and the importance of building ventilation systems into houses, souqs and other structures, has been recognized here for centuries. By utilizing natural forces, such as differences in pressure caused by wind, which draws air towards low pressure areas, and/or thermal buoyancy which causes hot air to be displaced by cooler air, natural ventilation can serve two functions that would otherwise have to be provided by mechanical systems, namely reducing the temperature of an area and improving indoor air quality by ventilation. - Night-time ventilation
Although Qatar experiences extreme temperatures during summer days, nights are breezier and cooler. This shift will be an advantage during the 2022 FIFA World Cup™ with night-time ventilation technology, which is also renewable. This process relies on the walls, floors and other surfaces being cooled at night when temperatures are lower. The cooled surfaces are then able to absorb heat during the day thus allowing people within the area to enjoy a cooler environment. - Evaporative cooling
Evaporative cooling utilizes the cooling effect generated by water as it absorbs heat to change state to a vapor in the process of evaporation. It is most widely understood from the process of perspiration, but it can also be used to keep buildings cool. Just as sweat evaporates to cool your body by absorbing heat, a water spray near a near a building or space absorbs heat and evaporates to create a cooler local environment. - Passive Cooling
Passive cooling is the process of cooling a space or building without use of energy input. Some of the walkways outside of the 2022 stadiums will be passively cooled. Passive cooling can be used in combination with other methods and leads to reduction of energy-intensive cooling systems. For some spaces inside buildings, passive cooling may be sufficient for achieving the desired air quality and comfort levels. - Mechanical ventilation
Mechanical ventilation involves the supply of outdoor air to, or removal of room air from, a building using electrically powered fans. There are three basic types of mechanical ventilation systems: one that relies on outdoor air brought into the building, one which discharges indoor air, and a balanced system which uses both. - Hybrid ventilation
This two-mode system combines the best aspects of natural and mechanical ventilation at different times of the day or season of the year to provide a comfortable indoor environment and good air quality. - Refrigeration
This process involves moving heat from one location to another. This cycle is used in most household refrigerators as well as in many large commercial and industrial refrigeration systems. Basically heat is taken from the space that needs cooling and rejected to the outside environment with the help of electrically driven compressor systems in most cases. - District cooling systems
Any group of buildings with large cooling needs normally requires a district cooling system. This means the centralized production and distribution of cooling energy. Chilled water is delivered via an underground insulated pipeline to office, industrial and residential buildings to cool the indoor air of the buildings within a ‘district’. - Air Conditioning
Given that this technology allows the control of air flow and temperature precisely, cooling units will be incorporated into stadiums. However, air conditioning will mainly be used in conjunction with more energy-efficient cooling methods as part of a ‘hybrid’ solution.