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26-07-2024
Serre Chevalier (FR) further secures its snow production
The French ski resort of Serre Chevalier, northernmost resort of the French Southern Alps, has always been on the edge of sustainable use of their resources, whether we’re looking at using their existing snowmaking infrastructure to generate hydroelectric power or upgrading on a regular basis their snowmaking installation.
For the coming season, the operator of Serre Chevalier has asked TechnoAlpin to modernize and expand the snowmaking equipment on the “Méa – Villeneuve – Le Bez” sector. The project consists of redesign several machine rooms in order to optimize water resources usage, upgrade the snow gun fleet for improve production performances, as well as equipping existing slopes with snow producers.
To improve the overall efficiency of the snow production, a TC60 cooling tower will be installed at one of the existing machine rooms of the installation. The goal is to cool down the water in order to be able to deliver to the snow producers the optimal water temperature. For instance, with a 4°C cooler snowmaking water, snow production can be started by a 1°C warmer wet bulb temperature. This can be critical particularly when making snow at marginal temperatures.
In addition, to beef-up the pumping capacities, several existing pumps will be replaced by new snowmaking pumps, in 3 machines rooms. In total 6 new pumps will be installed on the system. To further boost the energy efficiency of the machine rooms, the new pumps will be driven by VFDs. This new equipment and the new design in the snow process and installation architecture will allow to enhance the overall efficiency of the snow production and resource management.
On the snow guns’ side, 6 new TT10 fan guns will be delivered. These machines will replace ageing Turbocristal fan guns. With this choice, Serre Chevalier will benefit from the most advanced fan gun technology developed by TechnoAlpin today, capable of the highest performances from marginal to colder conditions. In addition to the TT10s, 4 new TL4 lances will be delivered. Again with the aim of reducing the energy consumption of the biggest air-consuming snow guns, while optimizing quality and instant snow production, 28 older-generation lance heads will be replaced.
Finally, ATASSpro, TechnoAlpin's state-of-the-art snowmaking software, will control part of the installation for the 2024/25 season, before being extended to the rest of the system in the future.
TechnoAlpin is very proud to bring such a perspective to Serre Chevalier's projects, and looks forward to a strengthened and promising collaboration in the years to come.