According to a report on the 8th local time, a city in northeastern Japan has begun to study the use of excess snow to generate electricity, with the aim of using this renewable energy to generate electricity to make up for potential power shortages.
The city of Aomori, which experiences heavy snowfall every year, began experimenting in the swimming pool of an abandoned elementary school in December to explore the feasibility of using the temperature difference between the snow and the surrounding air to generate energy, the report said.
Under the joint project, a local information technology start-up and Tokyo University of Electrical and Communications will conduct a demonstration experiment of snow power generation, which uses the energy generated by the evaporation of liquid cooled by the snow by the heat of the surrounding air to drive a turbine.
As an environmentally friendly, low-cost and safe source of electricity, snow power generation has received much attention recently.
In the city of Aomori, where huge amounts of snow are collected and dumped into the sea and elsewhere by snow plows and trucks each year, the cost of removing snow after heavy snowfall ballooned to a record 5.9 billion yen in the last fiscal year that ended in March last year, the report said.
"Snow is a nuisance, but we can put it to good use," said one city official.
On December 16, 2022, employees of the business placed insulation in the pool to keep the snow cold.
Next, before starting power generation in the spring, the researchers will further study how to conserve the snow and how much electricity can be obtained this way, the report said.
The business said its challenges included finding large-scale facilities to store snow and getting hot air during the cold winter months.
To get a larger temperature difference, the company will consider harnessing the heat emitted by the hot springs, the report said.