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December 5, 2010
Posted: 909 GMT
Qatar has won the race to host the 2022 World Cup, and will become the first Middle Eastern country to hold the tournament. As recently as November, FIFA expressed concerns over the country's climate, which it said should be considered "a potential health risk for players, officials, the FIFA family and spectators." But football's governing body seems to have been swayed by Qatar's plans to overcome the sweltering heat by building nine new fully air-conditioned open-air stadiums that work using solar power. Solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic panels on the outside the stadiums and on their roofs will harness energy from the blazing Qatari sun. It will be used to chill water, which in turn will cool air before it is blown through the stadium, keeping pitch temperatures below 27 C (80 F). Qatar 2022's bid book director Yasir Al Jamal said it would be the first time these technologies have been combined to keep a stadium cool. "Stadium seats will be cooled using air pumped at the spectator ankle zone at a temperature of 18 C," he said. Read more... Posted by: IME Producer |
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