* This is in reference to the proposed (already received prelim approval from NSF) 20+ mile power line installation along the hwy88 corridor - because poor and ignorant and mis-managed Kirkwood can't seem to get its head out of its collective diesel generators.
It can even power the snowmaking equipment
So here's the translation of the article (which appeared in 'Der Spiegel' magazine about a month ago):
The first ski lift in the world in solar Tenna opened in the Grisons. At the facility, which replaced the small mountain village in Safiental a 40-year-old ski lift, allowing one run on the lift mast cable design, the solar panels are mounted directly on the ski lift. They will track the sun during the day and placed upright in snow.
The 460 meter long lift needed in a winter season 22,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and will, whenever possible, by operated by specially-produced solar power. Overall, it expects a profit of 90,000 kilowatt hours per year. The sale of surplus power is used to finance the new lifts, including the 420,000 francs solar system.
The Swiss ski resort is so popular. Energy is an increasingly important factor of production alpine skiing: more powerful and more comfortable lifts, some of which have heated seats, and the expansion of the snowmaking equipment drives power consumption ever higher. Rising prices means the operator is now increasingly looking for alternatives to electricity from the main grid. Thus they avoid rising costs and still achieve a good image.
Giant wind turbine instead of chairlift
For years, the weather station provided in the ski resort of Styria in Salzstiegl data on temperature, humidity and wind speed. They were used for the snow and weather report. Until part-time owner Friedl Kaltenegger noted that many of the best wind conditions would provide for the installation of a wind turbine.
Instead of a new chair lift, he has invested around € 2.1 million in a 105 meter high wind turbine. The energy supplied by the wind generator powered, five lifts, and the hotel Moasterhaus. Excess wind power is fed at night and during the summer in the local network.
Since the mountains blow much wind, they are ideal for this type of power generation. A plant with 1.5 MW capacity, as it stands at the Salzstiegl and also in Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts can provide a year around 4.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
Jiminy Peak has 20 km of slopes, 350 snow guns completely and a large part of it lit every night during the winter season to 10pm, the wind turbine covers a third of the annual energy use. It also increases revenue, because half of the electricity generated is fed into the net. An additional benefit is the saving of 3300 tonnes of CO2 per year.
A rotor as a viewing platform
A completely different additional benefits does the Grouse Mountain ski area above the Canadian metropolis of Vancouver from his windmill: The hub of the rotor was extended to viewing platform for visitors. The technology comes from South Tyrol, where there are also already some plants.
Problems in Europe are more an aesthetic issue than energy production issues. An alternative is to use small wind systems with so-called H-rotor, as the Swiss ski resort Sattel installed in 2010. Instead of sweeping propellers, which rotate around the horizontal axis, move the wing of an H-rotor about the vertical axis. The low and sleek plants produce less power, but are better aesthetically.
The wind is not the only resource that exists in the mountains. Even the sun shines longer on the peaks: the Zugspitze as 1850 hours per year, while there are only 1390 Bayrischzell hours. The Schmittenhöhebahn in Zell am See is currently investing 3.5 million euros in the construction of 6000 square meters of photovoltaic systems on mountain restaurants and other commercial buildings. Expected annually 900,000 kilowatt hours of solar electricity, no less than ten percent of the demand of the company. In Winterberg in the Sauerland they feed a 5,000-square-meter photovoltaic system per year of "green" electricity into the grid, as much as the local snow machines need during the season for snow production.
Hydroelectric power for the fog horn
Wind and solar energy are weather dependent. During calm or overcast sky, it looks dim for the production of electricity. Here comes the water power into play. The infrastructure of the most energy-intensive snowmaking equipment can be used for hydropower production. The fog horn at Oberstdorf runs from February to November from the water stream through the main pipe lines of the snowmaking system.
After 200 meters to reach a maximum of 100 liters of water per second, a small, hidden turbine house is used. There, 16 blades are driven to produce 700,000 kWh of electricity per year. "That's enough to operate the main line of Oberstdorf in the fog horn peak," says Alfred Spötzl, technical manager of the railway. In the future, one looks forward to the fog horn because there are fewer guests, but you earn more money with the generation of electricity.
A special role in the transition to renewable energy could even use the numerous large ponds which were built to supply water to the snowmaking systems in the Alps. A study in the province of Salzburg came to the conclusion that the use would be economically feasible as a pumped-storage plants in about half of these ponds. A total of approximately 1070 megawatts of power could thus be installed, each with a standard capacity of 1.4 TWh year!
Such pumped storage plants are even more important with the increased usage of wind energy, biomass and photovoltaics.
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