Advanced cooling technologies are being used across the country to transform outdoor public spaces, souqs, and pedestrian districts into destinations that remain accessible and attractive during the country’s intensely hot summer months.
According to a report by Qatar TV, the emerging network of outdoor cooling systems is reshaping how residents and visitors experience public areas while supporting retail activity, tourism, and the broader development of climate-resilient urban environments.
The initiative combines underground cooling networks with specialised outdoor air-conditioning engineering to create more comfortable microclimates in open-air areas.
According to officials from the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), selected locations can reach outdoor temperatures in the range of about 22°C to 30°C, allowing people to walk, shop, and spend time outdoors even during periods when ambient temperatures can approach or exceed 45°C.
The hot summer months often extend from June to September, with temperatures reaching 45°C or higher, while summer humidity can reach 40-60% at times. Such conditions have traditionally made prolonged outdoor activity difficult during the daytime and contributed to the concentration of tourism and retail activity in air-conditioned indoor venues.
However, outdoor cooling represents a shift from simply providing enclosed air-conditioned environments towards creating more usable public spaces. Such cooling systems have been deployed or incorporated into several prominent developments and destinations, including Lusail Boulevard, Lafayette Street, Msheireb Downtown Doha, Al Hazm Mall, West Walk, Gewan Island, Souq Waqif, and several parks, including Al Gharaffa, Umm Al Seneem, and Rawdat Al Hamama.
Eng Jamal Yousef al-Derbasti, director of the District Cooling Department at Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), stressed that at Kahramaa decisions where to introduce cooling infrastructure are based on technical studies and established criteria, including cooling density and population density. The approach is intended to ensure that investment in cooling networks is directed towards locations where they can generate the greatest social and economic benefit.
The technology is closely linked to Qatar’s broader adoption of district cooling. Unlike conventional individual air-conditioning systems, district cooling uses central plants to produce chilled water, which is distributed through underground insulated pipelines to connected buildings and facilities.
Kahramaa says district cooling can reduce power demand by around 30% to 40% compared with conventional cooling technologies, while also reducing the infrastructure required for electricity generation and distribution.
This efficiency is particularly important for Qatar, where cooling accounts for a major share of energy demand due to the country’s prolonged hot season. Centralised cooling also allows operators to optimise plant performance and load management, while potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, refrigerant leakage, and noise associated with numerous individual cooling units.
Kahramaa identifies improved reliability, lower energy consumption, reduced peak power requirements and enhanced user experience among the principal benefits of district cooling.
Meanwhile, Eng Hamad Bawazir, head of the District Cooling Services Planning Section at Kahramaa, highlighted the performance of Qatar’s cooling infrastructure against international efficiency benchmarks.
He pointed out that international standards generally target an efficiency level no more than 1 point below the relevant performance measure. At the same time, some Qatari plants have recorded levels of about 0.9, with longer-term objectives of reaching 0.8 and 0.7.
Accordingly, for businesses operating in outdoor commercial areas, comfortable public spaces can increase the time consumers spend walking between shops, restaurants, and attractions. Retailers and traders at Souq Waqif have reported that outdoor cooling has contributed to stronger visitor flows and helped reduce the seasonal slowdown that traditionally affected outdoor commerce during Qatar’s hottest months.
Visitors have similarly described the availability of cooled outdoor areas as making summer walking and sightseeing more practical and comfortable.
The effect is particularly significant for destinations such as Souq Waqif and Msheireb Downtown, where the pedestrian experience itself forms an important part of the attraction.
In the meantime, Qatar has already developed substantial expertise in district cooling as part of its modern urban infrastructure.
The technology has been applied not only to commercial and residential developments but also to major public facilities.
In 2023, Kahramaa reported that Hamad Medical Corporation had adopted district cooling at its facilities, with the West Energy Centre currently providing a cooling capacity of 12,500 tonnes and a planned capacity of 20,000 tonnes. What began as a solution for sporting venues is now finding applications in everyday urban life.
