Indoor ski slopes

John — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:58:45 +0000

Both myself and my sons are passionate snowboarders. Unfortunately I have spent most of my life in a country with very little snow. There have been one or two ‘powder days’ in North Wales but if I want to shred some real snow then I would have to travel a long way to the Alps or even further. In the UK a network of dry ski slopes was established. However they are not a good substitute for real snow as the friction is too great, and most are not very forgiving to fall over on.
That is why there is a demand for the indoor ski slopes that have been constructed all over the world. Here in Belgium, there are three in operation, with more over the border in the Netherlands and Northern Germany. To keep these indoor slopes cold, make artificial snow and to light the pistes uses a considerable amount of electricity. I would be very interested to know how much electricity per customer / 10 metres of slope. If anyone has the answer please let me know. I’m sure there is plenty of scope for using the extracted heat in an industrial process or even district heating – although this would probably be of little use in the Summer. How about using it for heating a swimming pool or water park?
Today I visited Snow Valley at Peer, here in Belgium. I couldn’t help noticing that they were proudly displaying a certificate on the wall by the booking desk that explained that all of the power used at Snow Valley is purchased from renewable sources such as wind power. How many more energy intensive recreational facilities use only renewable energy?

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Indoor ski slopes