Commentaries at the San Antonio Report provide space for our community to share perspectives and offer solutions to pressing local issues. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author alone.
San Antonio’s downtown district cooling network has been a quiet workhorse for decades by piping chilled water beneath our feet to keep major buildings and public institutions cool. But as SAWS considers modifying and expanding this system, we have an opportunity to think bigger.
We should use this moment not only to increase the efficiency of building cooling but also to bring climate relief directly to the people who live, work and walk in downtown San Antonio. One smart way to do this: incorporate active cooling of public benches, a technique already being tested with success in Vienna, Austria.
Extreme heat is not a future problem for San Antonio, it is a present crisis. In the summer of 2023, the city endured more than 70 days over 100 degrees, and climate projections show that such heat will only become more frequent, intense and longer-lasting in the years to come. When the air itself is dangerously hot, which is when it exceeds 90 degrees, standing in the shade still exposes people to extreme heat. If the air is 105 degrees, it’s still 105 degrees in the shade. The official San Antonio temperature is taken in the shade at San Antonio International Airport and is usually 5–10 degrees cooler than some other parts of the city.
Vienna has started experimenting with actively cooled benches connected to its district cooling network. These benches are not merely shaded or made of heat-resistant materials; they are actively temperature-controlled. Using circulating water from the cooling system, the benches remain several degrees cooler than the surrounding air, making them comfortable and safe to sit on even during heat waves. They are cooled by water that returns to the plant through pipes after having cooled buildings and does not require an increase in plant cooling capacity.
San Antonio’s existing cooling network already has the basic infrastructure in place. With modifications and thoughtful expansion, it could support a similar program of actively cooled street furniture in key public areas like Hemisfair, La Villita and the River Walk. On August 18, 2023, I was underneath the shade of trees standing next to the river on the River Walk and measured an air temperature of 106 degrees when it was 99 degrees at the airport.
It would be nice to expand the network, if possible, to cool the Alamo area. On August 16, 2023, I measured an air temperature of 105 degrees in the shade in front of the Alamo when the official temperature was 101 degrees. The front wall of the Alamo was 107 degrees.
This isn’t just about comfort. It’s about public health, equity and urban resilience. Actively cooled benches would provide safer resting places for elderly residents, people with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. They could help reduce heat-related illnesses, encourage pedestrian activity and support local businesses that rely on foot traffic.
San Antonio has shown urban cooling leadership in the past. It debuted the world’s first air-conditioned public bus in 1945.
Let’s have the coolest downtown in Texas and use our cooling infrastructure not just to serve buildings, but to serve people. If we’re going to rebuild and modernize the downtown district cooling network, let’s make it a model of 21st-century climate resilience.
