When Qatar, an insanely wealthy Arab emirate roughly the size of Connecticut, won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, one of the stipulations was that its newly constructed open-air soccer stadiums would be air conditioned. Of course, this is Qatar we're talkin' about here, so the solution would have to be as extravagant as its insanely wealthy Arab emirate status implies. That's why it was no huge shock when The Peninsula reported plans to cool at least some of the nine stadiums by using a fleet of solar powered "clouds," designed and constructed by a certain Dr. Saud Abdul Ghani and his team. Dr. Ghani, the head of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University, said that the aircraft (more accurately described as really, really slow drones) will be operated by remote control, made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, and will initially cost half a million dollars each. But, really, what's a few million dollars when it's for a good cause?
Talk about over engineering a solution. Surely a fabric roof suspended by cables is far cheaper, accomplishes the same thing and doesn't have to have a bunch of green credentials like adding "solar" to it's description to try sell it.
ReplyDeleteMake a donation of the saved millions towards a carbon offset if green is really your plan.
Initial cost estimates aren't going to match the actual costs on this. They are probably that low just to get the go-ahead or something.
ReplyDeleteweve seen these before, many times.
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