SNOW - snow crystal formation in an artificial cloud
Abstract
Artificial snow production is indispensable for winter tourism, especially in lower regions. Conventional snow guns for use in ski resorts are less effective in terms of resources and energy use. Every year, ski resorts in Alpine regions use about 95 million cubic meters of water for artificial snow production. This results in a total amount of about 200 million cubic meters of snow. The demand for electrical energy is enormous. Estimations of the energy consumption within the Alpine regions come up with more than 250 GWh every year. The project SNOW aims to develop a technology and a prototype that sets new standards in artificial snow production in terms of resource efficiency and energy use. Snow is produced like it is demonstrated by nature: individual snow crystals are formed in an artificial cloud. The density of the resulting snow is variable, so that out of one cubic meter of water up to 10 cubic meters of snow can be produced. Additionally, the new technology requires only a fraction of the electrical energy demand of conventional snow guns. Such old technology needs about 0.625 kWh of electrical energy per cubic meter of man-made snow. For the same amount of snow the new technology will need only about 0.05 kWh. The aim of the project is the optimization of the formation of snow crystals within an artificial cloud inside a closed chamber. The consortium will focus its efforts to succeed the upcoming challenges to finally build a prototype and run successful laboratory tests. Under the guidance of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, experts from the Technical University Vienna and Siemens AG Austria are brought together to ensure sustainable solutions within the project. The technique of conventional snowmaking is basically unchanged for decades. The project SNOW can consolidate Austrias position as innovation leader in the equipment of ski areas. In addition, the new technology of making snow can be considered to substantially improve environmental aspects compared to conventional techniques. The final result of the project is to present a working laboratory prototype ready for further development towards field tests and finally marketability
keywords snow production crystal growth artificial cloud winter tourism prototype
Publikationen
Project staff
Johannes Hübl
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Johannes Hübl
johannes.huebl@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-87111
Project Leader
01.10.2010 - 31.12.2012
BOKU partners
External partners
Siemens AG Austria
DI Harald Loos
partner
Technische Universität Wien
Dr. Meinhard Breiling
partner