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Using Snow For Cool, Innovative Solutions

Sometimes the inspiration for developing appropriate, environmentally sound technologies is sitting on our doorstep, literally. At least that is the case in Funagata, Japan, where each winter the town is buried under several meters of snow and days are short and cold. By mid-summer, however, temperatures have climbed above 30 degrees Celsius and residents rely on air conditioners to stay comfortable in the sticky heat. Until recently, locals regarded these extremes of hot and cold as simple facts of life. Now things have changed.

Snow still falls and summers are still hot and humid, but these days townspeople view the snow less as a nuisance and more as a resource. In 1987, officials of this farming community in northern Yamagata Prefecture started looking for creative ways to use their abundant snowfall as a source of clean energy. With the help of university researchers, they began experimenting with snow-cooled storehouses for preserving farm produce. The first storehouse, built in the winter of 1990, was a large dome packed with 200 tons of snow covering two large transport containers. Until the following November when all the snow had melted, the temperature in the containers remained a steady 1 degree Celsius. The next year researchers added another layer of insulation to the dome. The following December, when new snow began falling, 15 percent of the snow from the previous year remained in the dome. Experiments with rice and pears have been successful and, according to farmers, rice stored for one year tastes just as good as newly harvested rice. "We've established that storage by this method costs far less than using electrical energy," said Tsuyoshi Takahashi of Funagata's planning division. Plans are now underway to create a large rice storage facility using this method, and in Yamagata where rice is the mainstay of agriculture, snow cooling could save farmers substantial amounts of electricity - and money. Takahashi says his dream is to "one day create a center in Funagata where rice can be stored in units of half a million tons."

<Snow Cooling System>
Air is circulated to and from the insulated icehouse by fans. When leaving the icehouse, the temperature of air is about 1 degree Celsius warming up by outside air.

Funagata officials have also constructed an experimental air-cooling system using an underground "icehouse." The icehouse is filled with more than 100 tons of snow in the winter, then in summer cool air from the icehouse is circulated through an adjacent building. Using this system, researchers have been able to reduce considerably the ambient CO2 and ammonia and maintain humidity at a steady 55 per cent. Costs are far less than for conventional air conditioners and the simple, low maintenance snow cooling plant has a life expectancy about three times longer than a conventional system. In addition, since the snow-based system cleans and cools air without having to open windows, researchers see the system as a healthy and clean energy alternative for homes and institutions, particularly hospitals and homes for the aged. Other villages in northern Japan that suffer similar snowfalls each year have taken notice of their Funagata neighbors and further efforts to use snow as a source of clean energy are likely.

For Japan's beleaguered farming villages such innovation may help to create new interest in agriculture. Perhaps environmentally sound technologies can also slow the migration of Japanese young people to urban centers like Tokyo and Osaka where the city lights burn bright, but not yet sustainably.

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• International Year of Biodiversity
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