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Environmental impact of indoor skiing
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With new indoor resorts opening across the world and more in the works for the US, I was wondering if anyone knew how the energy consumption and environmental impact of indoor resorts compares to those of a traditional outdoor resort? Obviously the indoor resorts are on a significantly smaller scale, but they also use far less water for snowmaking as it does not endure the typical melt cycle that a traditional resort goes through at the end of a season. Depending on the location of the indoor ski area, I assume it takes a huge amount of energy to keep the area cooled during the warmer months. I wonder how this total amount of energy needed to keep it running year round compares to a place that could be running 20 or more lifts and operating a fleet of machinery to keep everything in good shape during the winter plus the maintenance required to get everything ready for the following season. I feel like with the way winter is changing, there will be more indoor resorts popping up over the next 25 years.
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All of them in the world together will probably equal less than half a Taylor Swift, so I don’t really give a fuck lol
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It is like an ice skating rink on steroids. Apart from the air conditioning, there are pipes under the base cooling the base to -15C.
The electricity use can be partially offset by installing solar panels on the roof. The water use can be partially offset by reclycling the water from the snow that is scraped to the bottom.
I think the biggest environmental issue with indoor slopes is if there is a leak in the cooling pipes under the base. This will leak glycol and ammonia into the earth.
I remember two decades ago, there were business people trying to get permits to install similar base cooling for outdoor ski slopes. Luckily, they never got permission as the risk for the environment is too high.
I don't think your comparison is apples to apples though. The 20+ lift resort will serve orders of magnitude more skiers than an indoor resort. If the 20+ lift resort didn't exist, the indoor place would probably lose most of its customers who are mainly using the indoor infrastructure to be fit for their upcoming ski trip.
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