News•Feb 20, 2026
This Spanish City Is Resurrecting a 3,000-Year-Old Solution To Fight Extreme Heat
Seville’s CartujaQanat project revives 3,000‑year‑old qanat aqueducts to provide low‑energy cooling for public spaces. By chilling water underground at night and circulating it through pipes and misting systems, indoor temperatures drop up to 12 °C during summer peaks. The €5 million EU‑funded pilot operates seasonally, using rooftop solar to generate more electricity than the pumps consume. Success has sparked interest from cities in California, Germany and Dubai as a scalable, zero‑carbon heat‑mitigation model.
