Dubai Plans to Refrigerate Beach Sand
- Dec 16, 2008 7:57 PM EST
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The image you see above is a mockup of the Palazzo Versace hotel, a new luxury hotel to be built in the affluent country of Dubai. That's not exactly what's news-worthy though, after all, there are already many high-end hotels in the country. What's unique about this new hotel is that its beach would be filled with refrigerated sand to, you know, keep millionaires' feet from getting burnt, completely ignoring the existence flip-flops.
Heat-absorbing pipes will be built under the sands for that purpose, supplemented by giant wind blowers. Along with the refrigerated sand is the cooled swimming pool so tourists can endure the searing heat of Dubai in the summer. Thermostats will connect the sands and the pool to a computer that's responsible for controlling temperatures. As you might have already guess, refrigerating sands will definitely consume enormous amounts of energy to sustain. Energy that might come from coal-generated electricity, since there was no mention of renewable energy anywhere. "Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so people can continue destructive lifestyles," says Rachel Noble of Tourism Concern. As things stand right now, Dubai has an average of 44 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per individual living in Dubai per year.
The people behind Palazzo Versace however, claim the beach will be environmentally sustainable, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for more information in the future. For now, I can see one possible source of renewable energy that I believe should be utilized - the heat absorbed by the pipes from the sands underneath the beach.