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| Mt Morrisey at Sun Peaks - Photo by Barry MacDonald |
Solar power in ski resorts used to mean getting a tinfoil tan at
the posing patio on peak or piste. But now, many North American ski resorts are
getting green with envy about 100 percent renewable solar power which is
shining a light on environmentally-friendly ski hills.
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| Aspen Skiing Company |
Unlike all those resorts that just boast about having “300 days
per year of sunshine”, Wolf
Creek is actually using that
sunshine for something more useful than glam promo pics. As well as claiming
the sunny 300 - plus a whopping 480 inches snowfall – the Southwest Colorado
resort went 100
percent solar in 2018. Owner, Davey Pitcher worked closely with his local utility co-op to
build the Penitente Solar Project, a 25-acre solar farm around 50 miles from
the ski area. With an operational lifetime of over 25 years, the solar panels
can follow the path of the sun for optimal solar gain.
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| Liberty Utilities Solar Farm |
Squaw Valley Alpine
Meadows collaborated
with neighboring Liberty
Utilities to go
solar, planning to wipe out the entire footprint of 2016’s World Cup over 16 years. From Dec 2018,
the Tahoe resort adopted 100 percent renewable electricity, reducing
its total annual carbon footprint, including fuels and other sources unrelated
to the power grid, by 49 percent. By becoming Liberty’s largest Green Tariff
customer, Squaw Valley Ski Corp could contribute approximately $325,000 in
additional dollars on its first solar electric bill to help accelerate the
transition to affordable renewable energy sources for the region.
Telluride
Ski & Golf is
part of a broader community and regional effort committed to a 20 percent
reduction in carbon footprint by 2025. “By investing in energy reduction
technology, Telluride Ski & Golf has reduced its carbon footprint by nearly
13 percent since 2011 and anticipates continued carbon footprint reductions in
the coming seven years to achieve the community goal of a 20 percent carbon
footprint reduction,” says CEO Bill Jensen. In addition, regional energy
providers are currently making significant investments in solar infrastructure
to deliver solar-generated energy directly into the local and regional power
grid.
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| Solar snowmaking at Arapahoe Basin - photo by Ashley Ojala |
“We have
the power to save the powder,” says Arapahoe Basin, where snowmaking is being generated entirely by renewable
solar energy since last season. It’s “a call to action for our staff
and guests, inviting everyone to join A-Basin in our commitment to limiting our
environmental impacts and raising awareness around climate change,”
says Sustainability Manager, Mike Nathan. “While everything we do at
the ski area does have a cost saving and environmental impacts goal in mind, we
also hope that all of our initiatives and projects will key people into
changing behaviors in their everyday lives.”
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| Commitment to Zero by 2030 at Vail Resorts |
Bigging it up is Vail
Resorts, which
has made a “Commitment to Zero” emissions by 2030 across its 17 North American
resorts. A significant step is their ‘virtual power’ initiative, funding a
wind-energy project in Minnesota and buying 310,000 megawatt hours of wind
energy to offset 100 percent of its electricity emissions. The “Zero”
initiative also strives to eliminate single-use plastic cutlery and tableware
at all 17 resorts. Vail Resorts has partnered with Boulder, Colorado-based
Eco-Products to source compostable and recyclable dining products. The effort
is expected to divert nearly 300 tons of waste from landfills over the next two winters. The resort of Vail was officially certified
by Sustainable Travel International as the world’s first Sustainable Mountain
Resort, boasting two on-site
solar photovoltaic installations and working with local electrical utility,
Holy Cross Energy to lower the CO2 footprint.
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| Snow clearing on the solar panels at Aspen Highlands - credit Harrison Buck |
‘Give a Flake’ is Aspen Skiing Company’s way of harnessing the power of people politics for climate activism. Using Twitter, it is encouraging voting for climate-compatible legislation. As well as solar energy from nearby Carbondale, Aspen has rooftop solar panels at various venues across its four areas with a future focus on larger scale solutions.
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| Aspen's Give a Flake campaign |
Last January saw an Outdoor Business Climate Partnership
formed between the Outdoor Industry Association, SnowSports
Industries America and National Ski Areas Association. Mandate: to provide
leadership on climate change. State ski area trade associations - including
Colorado Ski Country USA, Ski Utah, Ski California, Ski Vermont, Ski Areas of
New York, Ski New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association – have
joined this climate conserving campaign.
‘Play
Forever’ is POWDR’s progressive project and, as part of this passionate commitment to 'Protecting the Environment' and also 'Enabling Participation', its
resorts have all adopted solar to some extent. Portfolio-wide, solar energy at
POWDR properties offsets more than 4 million kWh of electricity annually, and
as of the 2018-19 season, all properties eliminated straws and many additional
single-use plastics as part of their broader waste reduction efforts. Boreal derives 65 percent
of its base area and 15 percent of its total energy from solar. And Pico Mountain and Killington generate over 10 percent
of annual power from four local solar farms, eight onsite solar installations, and 14
AllEarth GPS-linked Solar Trackers. Other solar-savvy POWDR resorts include Mt Bachelor, Lee Canyon, and Copper Mountain.
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| Play Forever promise at POWDR resorts |
In Utah, Alta has its own
Environmental Center, spearheading renewable solar energy to various buildings,
green groomers and
recycling/repurposing/rebuilding projects. In Colorado, solar is radiating its rays at Winter Park.
In Canada,
Whistler
Blackcomb - a
longtime champion of sustainability and environmental stewardship - became a
driving force behind some of the environmental components of Epic Promise after its takeover by
Vail Resorts. As well as a micro hydro
renewable energy plant which returns to the grid the equivalent of its annual
demand, Whistler focuses on energy-saving vegetarianism, green staff
initiatives, and the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, and repurpose.
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| Sun Peaks Resort - photo by Sam Egan |
Also in British Columbia, Sun
Peaks has
started investing in solar with panels powering the valley trail lampposts and water level monitors and has a comprehensive list of initiatives
for fire, earth, air, water and other elements on
its resort website. Sun Peaks was an
early adopter of the ISO 14001 global environmental management system. It uses
100 percent hydro-electric power and mostly gravity-fed snowmaking systems.
Research from Oregon State University
last year found that covering one percent of the world's farmland with solar
panels would be sufficient to meet the electricity needs of the entire world. Collaborating with Tesla, the study produced a global
energy solution (known as agrivoltaics or agriphotovoltaics), which was published in the journal Scientific
Reports. For more info visit inverse.com.
You can find out more about green ski resorts worldwide at Save Our Snow as well as Protect Our Winters.
