Environmental News

(c/o www.snow24.com)

The leading ski resorts of Pitztal in Austria and Zermatt in Switzerland are adopting the new technology and plan to begin operation in October 2008.

The snowmaker was put through its paces last month in Israel where the machines were developed, where the current ambient temperature is above 30C.

The machine is based on 15-year proven technology which uses vacuum conditions to generate snow. It was first discovered when IDE installed a cooling system in a South African gold mine and discovered a by-product of the cooling process was that it created snow.

Christen Bauman, CEO of Zermatt Mountain Resort explained why they had decided to embrace the new technology, "Zermatt is one of the few resorts to remain open throughout the entire summer. However, as of late autumn the glacier slope comes to a halt approx. 500 metres before the mountain station, forcing skiers to cover the remaining stretch by foot. The IDE system will bridge that snow gap."

Dr. Hans Rubatscher, Chairman of Pitztal Glacier Resort has similar reasons for using the machines, "By opting for this snow making technology, we can secure the timely start of our ski season. This 1.5 million Euro investment will complement existing snow making systems by covering slopes that so far had to rely exclusively on natural snowfall.“ He added, 'this will also enable us to offer European ski teams, who start their training season in the autumn, a wider racing area."

With reliable snow cover becoming more of an issue for low lying resorts or those offering summer skiing, the demand for these machines could see a sharp rise in coming years, proving to be highly lucrative sideline for IDE technologies who until now have mainly deveoped machines for building and district cooling, district heating, and deep mine cooling.