Energieffektivisering vid snötillverkning

Sammanfattning: Idre Fjälls snow production has been analyzed in cooperation with Snowtech AB. A survey of the energy use and how to decrease the energy use was carried out. The first part is about snow and snowmaking. Natural snow consists of water molecules that form a hexagonal pattern in solid state. The reason to the hexagonal pattern is due to dendritic growth during the snow crystals journey through the cloud towards the ground. Snow from snow guns is spherical in shape in contrast to natural snow, which has a hexagonal pattern. Depending on the type of snow gun that is used different amount of snow is produced depending on the wet bulb temperature. With the current modern snow guns the snow quality is not dependent on the temperature instead the amount of snow produced increases with decreasing temperature. The foundation Idre Fjäll is the second largest ski resort company in Sweden if turnover is counted. Approximately 15 GWh is used during one year, 3 GWh or 20 % is used to produce snow. Compressing air uses largest amount of energy.