Seville plans electromagnetic bus stops to help waiting passengers suffering in heatwaves
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Seville in Spain is to introduce new bus stops that can lower the temperature around them by up to 20 degrees to help waiting passengers suffering in heatwaves.
Temperatures in the Spanish city broke the 40C mark this week and, in some places across the Andalucian capital, the mercury approached 44C.
The new bus shelters boast purified water tanks, sensors and solar panels and will be introduced next year to mitigate extreme heat like that caused by the Charon heatwave.
The “bioclimatic bus stops” work through thermal radiation. Electromagnetic waves emitted based on temperature are able to transmit both heating and cooling. The cooling effect lasts from 10 to 20 minutes, which is the usual time a passenger waits for a bus.
The bus stop, which will work during the hottest part of the day from 1pm to 7pm, was designed by researchers from the Higher Technical School of Engineering at the University of Seville. An underground tank storing purified water is connected by tubes to the shelter’s canopy, where there are sensors and solar panels.
The sensors allow the shelter to detect the outside temperature and whether people are nearby, which allows it to “decide” when to trigger the cooling function. The solar panels make the shelter self-sufficient in power and gives it the energy to propel the water around the structure.
At night the water in the tank rises towards the solar panels, cools down and returns to the underground tanks, where it is stored and kept cool. When the sensors detect waiting passengers and temperatures are high, the water runs through the inside of the bus stop.
This radiates cold through the metal of the stop’s canopy through very small pores, which are each the size of a chickpea.
