Ski Resort News

Colorado Company New Hub for Wind Turbines That Could Green Up Ski Areas

By Kristen Lummis, 2-23-11

	A Leitwind turbine at Grouse Mountain, British Columbia.

At some point, as a skier or rider, it dawns on you that skiing and snowboarding are not necessarily without environmental impact. Although we are outside enjoying the fresh air, the gorgeous scenery and moving downhill under our own power (albeit with a gravity assist), getting uphill is a different matter.

When it comes to energy usage at ski areas, running lifts takes a lot power. The issue has led several ski resorts to measures designed to lighten their carbon footprint. For example, Vail Resorts and Aspen/Snowmass invest in wind-power credits. Canada’s giant Whistler-Blackcomb Resort took this a step further and completed a hydroelectric plant in 2009 that generates more energy than the resort currently uses. Grouse Mountain, also in British Columbia, built an on-site utility-scale wind Leitwind turbine that offsets 25 percent of the resort’s energy consumption and has become a year-round tourist attraction with a 360-degree viewing pod located 20 stories above the ground.

Grouse Mountain is not alone in North America. Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts installed a turbine in 2008, but what makes the Grouse Mountain Leitwind turbine unique is its design, borne of innovation in ski lift technology.

Leitner-Poma of North America is a world-wide ski lift manufacturer based in Grand Junction and is one of several companies, including Leitner Lifts of Sterzing, Italy, under the Leitner Technologies umbrella. Looking for a way to develop a more simple, efficient and cost-effective lift, Leitner Lifts began experimenting with direct-drive technology.

A standard ski lift utilizes a motor, a gear box and a bullwheel. In order to operate at the correct speed, lifts use a gear reducer to slow down the speed of the chairs. A direct-drive ski lift eliminates the gear box, utilizing only the bullwheel and an electric motor, with the motor’s generator turning at the correct speed.

While working on this technology, Leitner Lifts recognized the process could be reversed and used to create direct-drive wind turbines. In essence, the direct drive allows the generator to turn at the same speed as the turbine blades, eliminating more than one-half of the rotating components in the mechanism and, possibly, one-half of the potential headaches.

Leitwind has primarily focused its wind-turbine installations in Europe and India and is just beginning in North America from Colorado. Highly efficient, but of a relatively small-scale, the Leitwind turbines range in power from 1.5 megawatts to 3.0 megawatts, enough to offset the energy consumption of between 400 and 800 homes. These are not the type of turbines that would populate a big wind farm. Rather, the Leitwind turbines are appropriate for use by individual companies and communities looking to supplement their local power supply with green energy. And, of course, they are appropriate for ski areas.

And why not? The benefits to a ski area producing on-site wind power are many. A turbine can be hooked up to the local power network and provide energy for snowmaking and lift operations. It can lower a resort’s power bills and reduce its carbon footprint. Generating green power is good for a ski resort’s environmental image and supports a resort’s environmental ethos. Even more important for an industry dependent upon cold-weather and snow, a small carbon footprint is insurance against future climate change. Oh, yes, and there are tourist dollars involved.

According to Patrick Thorne, editor of the Green Ski Resort Guide, among the world’s leading 250 ski resorts, 60 percent are now using at least some renewable energy from sources such as wind-, solar- or hydro-power. One-third of these resorts have upped that number to 100 percent. To return to just one example, Vail Resorts is now the second-largest purchaser of renewable energy in North America (and given North America’s penchant for using lots of energy, that may mean it’s the second-largest purchaser in the world).

Ski resorts don’t have to be net energy consumers. They don’t have to get caught on the wrong side of climate change. And with ski resorts focusing more on reducing their carbon impact and with companies such as Leitwind and Leitner-Poma focusing on the technology necessary for a green-energy future, they may not be.

Kristen Lummis lives on the Western Slope and also blogs at braveskimom.com.

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