Hokkaidoʼs winter wonderland is transformed into clean power
Hokkaido is Japanʼs northern island and site of some of the countryʼs most popular ski and snowboarding slopes. The capital, Sapporo, struggles with a snowy season lasting over 100 days, depositing an average of 191 inches (4.85m) of snow.
The winter causes traffic congestion, train delays, infrastructure damage and health concerns for residents, but life in Hokkaido has long revolved around the changing seasons.
In recent years, Hokkaidoʼs scientific community has even devised methods of capturing the potential energy of the enormous snowfalls, shrinking the carbon footprint of a country that runs heaters in the winter and air-conditioners in the summer.
North of Sapporo is Bibai, a tiny locality famous for hot springs and, more recently, snow warehouses.
Beyond the massive insulated doors of these buildings the temperature drops to somewhere between 0-4 degrees Celsius (32-40 degrees F), even during a Hokkaido summer that soars to the mid 30s.
The snow and ice is harvested in the winter, forming part of the road-cleaning process that continues throughout the winter in order to prevent modern life from grinding to a halt.
The snow is then transported to the warehouses, where it is stored and used for a variety of purposes, including food preservation (thereʼs a lot of asparagus and berries grown in the area) and air-conditioning.
The annual snow accumulation for Bibai is more than eight meters (26ʼ 3”), one of the highest average snowfalls for the island. Previously a mining town, the area has adapted to freezing winters and simmering summers through developing the innovative snow-cooling technology.
According to Bibaiʼs Natural Energy Research Association, 1,000kg (220.46 pounds) of snow can be converted into the same amount of energy produced by buying 10 litres (2.64 gallons) of crude oil. So if Bibai uses an average of 4,500 metric tons of snow for energy, thatʼs comparable to 45,000L (11,887.7 gallons) of oil.
The Association was formed in 1997 with the goal of turning a nuisance into a resource.
“Year after year, after every snowfall in Bibai the extra snow had to be collected and placed in designated areas until the spring, when more work was done to melt it,” the association told Japanese magazine Nipponica.
“The question was, couldnʼt the snow be changed into a resource?”
*The Japanese Government is on board, too. The Cool Energy project includes snow-and-ice cryogenic energy that can “easily provide inexpensive and stable circulation of low−temperature air with high humidity, and is highly valued as an alternative source of energy to oil and clean energy against global warming as it emits no carbon dioxide.”
“It also has many advantages such as preserving freshness, enhancing sugar content, dehumidifying and deodorizing of farm products,” claims the Cool Energy policy paper.
Snow energy is still in its early days, but shows potential for development in the worldʼs snow-battered towns and cities. More than anything, the story of Bibai is a reminder to look at age-old issues in new ways, and to look to sources of frustration as ones of inspiration.
