Environment

Dubai Plans to Cool Sizzling Sandy Beach

by Amy Judd | December 16, 2008 at 10:49 am

476 views | 18 Recommendations | 6 comments

The Palazzo Versace hotel in Dubai has hired the Hyder Consulting firm to invent a device that will cool off the hot sandy beaches so that the tourists can lie on them more comfortably. They plan to suck out the heat of the sand so that people can walk on it and put their towels down.

Hyder Consulting is the supervising engineering firm for Emaar's Burj Dubai, the tallest structure in the world. Hyder Consulting is known for its Ski Dubai a commercial attraction that provides a Nordic Winter experience by recycling snow and employing cutting edge technology to power the entire facility. The Palazzo Versace beach project will use a cooling system of heat-absorbing pipes to be installed underneath the sand and huge wind blowers will send gentle breezes over sunbathers.

The temperatures in Dubai can get scorchingly hot though.

Temperatures in Dubai can easily hit 122-degrees Fahrenheit during the Summer months, making the sands too hot for most visitors to walk on. The cooling pipes, giant air blowers and cooled pools will offer guests a pleasant beach experience even in the scorching temperatures.

I guess there is no recession here.

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aknab

at 12:00 on December 16th, 2008

Some photos of the Dubai Marnia buildings and beach from December'08.

aknab has contributed a photo to this story.

momentaryawe.com

at 12:12 on December 16th, 2008

Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence

momentaryawe.com has contributed a photo to this story.

Adam Purple

at 15:18 on December 16th, 2008

I saw this one, too. If this is truly as claimed in the PhysOrg article, I can hardly imagine a more wasteful use of energy. I suppose that shading with vegetation, or even with beach umbrellas and cabanas, would be just too low-tech.

On the other hand, if the sand is as hot as is claimed, the heat obtained from the underground piping could, with the right working fluid, be used to drive an electricity-generating turbine. But at the very least, the heat should be used for heating hot water for consumption in the hotel.

Maireid Sullivan

at 21:58 on December 16th, 2008

Money to burn!

This would be a funny story but for its example of total selfish indulgence, when starving people the world over are so easy to ignore.

Milieunet

at 02:25 on December 17th, 2008

In Dubai everything is possible. I hope they will find a sustainable way to cool the beach, with renewable energy.

by the way this is the third time i add this. Sorry but the NP systemes has a lot of failures at the moment.

brian1 (not verified)

at 07:13 on December 19th, 2008

is anyone afriad this will cool the waters to much if this thing catches on? Or better yet al Gore can use this to fight off globel warming. Who would of thunk it.