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17-11-2023
Energy efficiency, one of the cornerstones of sustainability
After an extensive work and in-depth review of our operations and processes, TechnoAlpin released its 1st sustainability report earlier in October. As the snowmaking industry leader, setting the standard for the last 30 years, sustainability and resources preservation are key factors of success for TechnoAlpin. This 1st report identifies 6 essential material issues(*) that will be addressed in TechnoAlpin’s strategy between now and 2025. One of them is energy efficiency.
When it comes to sustainability, higher energy efficiency applies not only to snowmaking operations when running snow guns as well as machine room components, but to the entire value chain also, from product design, components manufacturing, system engineering, that improves resource utilization, to installation on site. TechnoAlpin considers very carefully every single aspect of snowmaking projects in terms of energy efficiency and how to achieve greater performances.
TechnoAlpin’s snow producers have been long known for their high energy efficiency and strong snow production performances. Over the year, the research and product development team have improved the energy consumption and dramatically increased the water to snow conversion ratio of fan guns and lances. This true for cold temperatures, but even more for marginal conditions, where energy efficiency is even more important. With the newest lance technology, like the TL8 or the tower mount TT9 and TT10 fan guns, the production performances are impressive across all the temperature range, while offering an optimized energy consumption.
Decision aid tools, such as SNOWMASTER, contribute also to achieving maximum energy efficiency too. These tools, including the weather and production forecast features, help snowmaking crews taking the most relevant decisions. Resort management can easily assess when snowmaking goals will be achieved and which amount of resources will be required.
As for system design, today’s modern snowmaking facilities must be able to produce significant amounts of snow in very short periods of time, making the most of each hour of cold available prior to the beginning of the winter season. With this greater energy efficiency, the faster the snow is produced, the earlier the snowmaking campaign will be over, in turns, reducing the overall energy demand sooner at the beginning of the winter season and lowering the carbon footprint of ski resorts.
In the coming years, TechnoAlpin will pursue in this direction, developing and offering products, as well as system and software solutions that will help ski resorts and the mountain industry face the challenges ahead, in terms of sobriety of resources utilization and energy efficiency.
(* material issues: economic, environmental, or social issues on which a company has an impact).