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Solutions to adapt to the changing climate in the mountains therefore "ironically add more CO2 to the atmosphere and are making the climate problem worse", says Cavitte. Even today, snow ploughs on average account for roughly 60% of a resort's carbon emissions, while snow cannons contribute about 25%, says Cavitte. Ski lifts aren't as polluting, she says, since many resorts are trying to use renewable electricity. Besides the climate impact of snow machines, there is also an operational challenge as artificial snow can only be produced when temperatures stay below 1C (34F). The air has to be cold enough that the water droplets which the machines expel freeze and turn into snow particles. Over Christmas and New Year, many Alpine resorts were forced to close their slopes as the temperatures were too high to generate artificial snow. Ski resorts are investing in mountain bike trails, walking paths and climbing routes to encourage tourists to visit in the summer (Credit: Alamy) Ski resorts are investing in mountain bike trails, walking paths and climbing routes to encourage tourists to visit in the summer (Credit: Alamy) Meanwhile, some have resorted to covering glaciers in protective blankets to stop them from melting in the summer. Made out of white UV-resistant synthetic material, the blankets shield the thick winter snow from the Sun's rays during the warmer summer months. According to a 2021 study, the technique can reduce the melting of snow and ice by 50-70%, compared to unprotected surfaces. But it is a costly process, the study's authors warn. Covering all of Switzerland's 1,000 largest glaciers would cost about 1.4bn Swiss Francs ($1.5bn; £1.2bn) annually, they estimate. There are also negative environmental consequences associated with this adaptation measure, warns Cavitte. Polluting machines are used to put the blankets down and remove them. "And when they take them off, there's always pieces of plastic that are left behind which contaminate the glacier and surrounding land," she says. There are also concerns about how this measure will impact local biodiversity and wildlife, she adds. These short-term measures will not shield the industry from the looming climate threat. "The ski industry is not going to be able to save itself," acknowledges Schendler. Despite this bleak outlook, many resorts have adopted ambitious, long-term sustainability goals in a bid to reduce their emissions and protect their natural resources. Big Sky resort, which sits at an elevation of 2,200m (7,200ft) in the Rocky Mountains in southern Montana, is aiming for net zero emissions by 2030, under its Forever Project, which was launched in 2021. The resort has introduced a wide range of sustainability measures, including a newly installed 32 kilowatt (kW) solar array, improving the efficiency of buildings, reducing its water usage and protecting its forests, says Amy Fonte, sustainability specialist and head of the Forever Project. The resort also purchases renewable energy credits for the remaining electricity it uses, including for its 38 chairlifts and its housing, says Fonte. Aspen Skiing Company, meanwhile, is aiming to source 100% renewable electricity to power all its operations by 2030. "Ski resorts use fossil fuels and a lot of energy. It would be completely hypocritical if those resorts were not working to fix the system," says Schendler. Meanwhile, a wood pellet plant heats 600 apartments, two hotels and a public swimming pool in Anzère, saving the village 1.5 million litres (330,000 gallons) of oil a year. Most of the resort already runs on hydroelectricity, which is generated at the nearby Tseuzier dam. Anzère is also car-free and offers free public transport to all visitors, in a bid to encourage people to travel more sustainably. Tourists also have a role to play in helping reduce emissions and preserving the mountains, says Dijkman. "It's a mindset that needs to not only be present among local businesses but also among the people that come here on holiday." This starts with choosing how they travel to the ski resort. According to a recent survey by the Ski Club of Great Britain, just 2% of British travellers take the train to go skiing, compared to 72% who fly. (Read more about the climate impact of flying). For people in Europe looking to travel in a more sustainable way to the Alps, there are plenty of options ranging from the Alpen Express, an overnight train travelling from the Netherlands via Cologne to Austrian resorts, or the TravelSki Express which runs between London and the French Alps, via a Eurostar to Paris. Even if they are unable to change their own fate, resorts can still play an important role in the fight against climate change, says Schendler. "The role of the industry is to help the public understand what they stand to lose from climate change and to advocate for solutions." Ski resorts are the "perfect messenger" for highlighting the reality of the climate crisis, says Schendler. "People love what skiing offers them today. The threat of that disappearing is the kind of visceral hit that people need to catapult themselves into action." The ski industry is not going to be able to save itself – Auden Schendler Fonte agrees that the ski industry "can make significant behaviour changes…We can really help mitigate the impacts of climate change," she says. "I'd like to think that we're going to live in a world where skiing will still be around." But this looks like an unlikely reality for many resorts, especially lower-lying ones in Europe. Many are seeking to pivot their business model and ensure that they have a future if there is no more snow. Some ski resorts are covering glaciers in protective blankets to stop them from melting in the summer (Credit: Miguel Medina / Getty Images) Some ski resorts are covering glaciers in protective blankets to stop them from melting in the summer (Credit: Miguel Medina / Getty Images) "We're now investing more in summer [activities] than we're investing in winter [ones]," says Dijkman. The plan is to highlight "all the activities that the mountains have to offer", without turning the resort "into a Disney [theme] park", she says. Schendler says a future without skiing will be very difficult for resorts. Even with increased investment, they will struggle to generate a similar stream of revenue during the summer, he argues. "Skiing is a huge business," he says. "The [economic] throughput in the summer is going to be much lower. You can't really build a business around hiking." But according to Rachael Carver, who surveyed ski tourists at the Austrian resort Stubai Glacier for her dissertation at the University of Staffordshire in the UK, people see the value of visiting the mountains even if there is no snow. Some 70% of those surveyed said they would return to the resort if the glaciers vanished, citing the beautiful mountain scenery and hiking opportunities as the main reasons. Carver also observed an increase in "last-chance tourism" at Stubai Glacier, with people visiting the resort before the glacier vanishes completely. "Many people are aware that glaciers are melting and that ski resorts are disappearing. They want to see these sites before they [vanish] completely," she says. This increased interest in visiting glaciers provides resorts with an opportunity to educate people about climate change, she notes. But this surge in "last-chance tourism" is also unsustainable and placing even more pressure on an already fragile ecosystem, says Carver. Adapting the business model and pivoting to new mountain activities is the only choice, says Dijkman. "We have to become greener if we want to keep living here," she says. She is hopeful that tourists will continue visiting the mountains even if there is no snow. "Our mountains are naturally stunning and we already have absolutely everything to make holidays perfect, whether it's in the winter or summer." |
Dear Reader, Investigative reporter and PhD, Nomi Prins is at the FIRST gas station in America to no longer offer gasoline. As you'll see in the picture below, all of the traditional pumps are gone! The owner you see in this picture… | | |
Small hydropower plants have long sustained remote communities in the Alps – but there is a growing debate over their environmental impact. T The Furtalm, an idyllic mountain farm in South Tyrol in the northern Italian Alps, is surrounded by waterfalls. Their rushing sound fills the air, along with the bells from a small herd of grazing cows. Hikers sit at long tables outside a tiny farm kitchen, enjoying hearty meals of homemade cheese dumplings and apple strudel. Having arrived after a bracing hike, I order a plate of dumplings, and enjoy the view over a nearby stream. Apart from looking very charming, the stream is doing me a practical favour: it is helping provide my lunch. A tiny hydropower plant, tucked away out of sight, generates the electricity for the entire farm: enough to run the milking machine by the stable, the fridge in the dairy where the cheese is made, and all the kitchen appliances used to make my dumplings. "Electricity is free here, it's always been that way. When it's right next to your door, you don't have an electricity counter," says Alexandra Larch, who runs the farm and restaurant with her family in the summer months, and spends the winters in the valley. Her parents have an even smaller hydro plant next to their own mountain farm: it's so tiny they have to switch off everything else in the house before they switch on the milking machine. As I enjoy my delicious dumplings, I can hear a faint clanging sound in the distance. It comes from a construction site for another hydro plant, built by a local cooperative. South Tyrol and its Alpine neighbours are known as Europe's hydro powerhouses, mainly thanks to their large plants, which mark parts of the landscape with their valley-spanning reservoirs and giant pipes. Hydropower generates more than 7,300 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year in South Tyrol, some 90% of its total electricity production, enough to export about half of it to other Italian regions in the summer months. Over 80% of that hydropower output is generated by only 30 big plants. But in recent years, another aspect of the Alpine energy supply has been gaining increasing attention: hundreds of small hydropower plants, many rooted in traditional cultures of self-sufficiency and self-determination. You might also like: The floating solar that tracks the Sun The surprising benefits of blue spaces Spain's magnificent medieval waterways There are about 1,000 hydropower plants in South Tyrol, and the vast majority of them are small or medium-sized – ranging from tiny ones powering a single farm, to clusters of more sizeable ones covering an entire valley's supply. Most are run-of-river diversion plants, meaning a part of the stream is diverted, typically by small dams or weirs, through a pipe to a turbine. (There is no standard global definition of small hydro, and the upper limit can vary hugely between countries, but international reports tend to define it as up to 10 megawatt installed capacity. In South Tyrol, small typically means up to 220 kilowatt (kW) capacity, and medium, up to 3 megawatts [MW]). Elsewhere in the Alps, the picture is similar, with a multitude of small or mid-sized plants allowing individual farms or villages to be self-sufficient, while typically making a modest contribution of only around 10% or so to national hydropower production. Advocates of small hydro present it as a relatively low-impact source of energy, with scope for global expansion. As rocketing energy prices and fears of blackouts, along with climate change, accelerate the quest to find alternatives to coal, gas and oil, the idea of a robust, renewable local energy source may sound very appealing. But critics argue that the ecological cost of small plants may be higher than previously thought – and needs to be carefully balanced against their benefits. The Furtalm farm and restaurant in South Tyrol, surrounded by waterfalls, harnesses the power of Alpine streams to generate its electricity (Credit: Sophie Hardach) The Furtalm farm and restaurant in South Tyrol, surrounded by waterfalls, harnesses the power of Alpine streams to generate its electricity (Credit: Sophie Hardach) A few months after my summer hike, in November, I call the Pflersch energy cooperative, which is behind the new power plant being built near the Furtalm, in the beautiful Pflersch Valley. The managing director of the cooperative, Franz Schwitzer, chuckles as he tells me that he is getting a lot of media requests these days: with the world gripped by an energy crisis, his resilient cooperative is attracting attention. In Brief: How sustainable is small hydropower? Historically, small hydropower helped bring electricity to many remote communities such as farms and villages in the Alps. As a legacy of this decentralised energy landscape, there are still thousands of medium-sized, small and even tiny hydropower plants in the Alps, some powering entire valleys, others, a single farm, or even, a single milking machine. New ones have also been built, based on the assumption that their environmental impact is relatively low. However, criticism of small hydropower has been growing. There is mounting scientific evidence that their impact is larger than was previously thought, and that they can disrupt streams, damage habitats and harm migratory fish. Although small hydropower has faced criticism, those opposing it don't necessarily rule it out altogether. Rather, a common view is that the ecological impact and social and economic benefits have to be assessed carefully, case by case. The cooperative owns four small-to-medium-sized hydro plants in the valley, the biggest of which has an installed capacity of about 3 megawatts, as well as the one under construction. Its roughly 300 members, such as farmers, villagers, small companies and small hotels, pay only 3.1 euro cents (3.2 US cents/2.7p) per kilowatt/hour (10 euro cents/10 US cents/8.7p including taxes), up to a consumption of 1,250kWh per month. (At the time of reporting, the market price in Italy was 66 euro cents (69 US cents/57p) per kWh for the typical household, including taxes). The cooperative also supplies non-members at the market price, such as big hotels and a ski lift. For most of the year, the hydro power it generates is enough to make the Pflersch Valley self-sufficient. "If the Italian grid were to collapse, it wouldn't be a problem for us during nine months of the year – spring, summer and autumn – given normal weather. We'd just switch our network to 'isolated operation' [for self-consumption]," says Schwitzer. In winter, the cooperative purchases additional energy from the market. If it could store the energy from the warmer months, it would be self-sufficient all year round. The community-centred model is not unusual in the region, where small firms and cooperatives are seen as adding diversity and resilience to the energy sector. According to Thomas Senoner, the director of South Tyrol's public agency for the sustainable use of water resources, part of the region's energy policy is to support rural life in the mountains, including traditional cooperatives. To people whose lives are currently blighted by soaring energy prices, such self-sufficiency may seem like the ultimate luxury. But as Schwitzer points out, South Tyrol's cooperatives were a result of necessity, and extreme marginalisation. The traditionally German-speaking region came under Italian rule in the early 20th Century. Some local families still harbour heartbreaking memories of the time when the central Italian government built big hydropower plants in their pristine valleys, flooding historical villages and centuries-old farms, to provide energy for Italian factories, not remote Alpine communities. Today, South Tyrol is still part of Italy but an autonomous province with control of its own energy resources. "The cooperatives were originally created because of a disadvantage, because we were in the periphery. In the 1950s, we would never have received electricity from the main grid," says Schwitzer. "So the people said to themselves, fine, we'll do it ourselves, we'll build our own power plant. They were brave pioneers who used their private funds as collateral to take out credit and pay for the turbines. And that disadvantage of the past, has now turned into an advantage." His cooperative has an especially long history: the local priest and three farmers started its first hydro plant in a hamlet called Boden almost 100 years ago. The priest recorded the event in his church chronicle in an awestruck tone: "14 November 1923. At 14.30 in the afternoon, Boden lit up with the glow of electric light for the very first time." Large hydropower plants in South Tyrol have flooded large areas of land for their reservoirs, submerging former villages (Credit: Getty Images) Large hydropower plants in South Tyrol have flooded large areas of land for their reservoirs, submerging former villages (Credit: Getty Images) Today, tighter environmental regulation is making any further construction beyond the cooperative's fifth plant unlikely, says Schwitzer. He sees wind and solar power as possible options for the future of his valley, but for now, both face constraints. Wind farms have faced resistance from Alpine hiking associations. Solar panels can only be installed on roofs in South Tyrol, not as solar farms on the ground. Renovating and optimising existing hydro plants, especially the big ones, is an important step, he says. Nevertheless, in his view, small hydro shouldn't only be judged on efficiency, but also on its social role enhancing life in the mountains. "There's a broad consensus here: the water used to generate this energy comes from our valley, and that's why we want to keep the value it creates. It's always been that way here, we organise ourselves, we're not that dependent on outside help." He compares it to the long tradition of mutual aid in bad weather and emergencies, and the tight network of volunteer-run associations, from the local orchestra to the fire brigade. Proponents of small hydro argue that it could boost the wellbeing of many other communities around the world, too. The World Small Hydropower Development Report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization promotes small hydropower as a "renewable and rural energy source for sustainable development". The report suggests that small hydropower could help provide power to the estimated one billion people worldwide who still do not have access to electricity. Critics of small hydro power do tend to make an exception for remote, isolated communities. But they also emphasise that it should be used as a last resort. Cipra, an Alps-wide organisation promoting sustainable development in the area, for example recommends using small hydro plants "for limited and isolated local needs only". Using them for energy production beyond these remote areas would require such a large number of plants "that the cumulative environmental impact would be ecologically unbearable". After all, the existing multitude of small hydro plants contributes little to the overall energy output, even in places where such plants have a long history. In Switzerland, more than 1,400 tiny, small and medium-sized hydropower plants of up to 10 MW capacity, together produce about 10% of the country's total hydropower output. In Bavaria, in Germany's mountainous south, 94% of the region's over 4,000 hydro plants have a capacity of under 1 MW, covering only about 9% of total hydropower output. In Austria, 95% of grid-connected hydro plants have a capacity of less than 10 MW, and generate about 14% of total hydropower output. There are another 2,000 or so off-grid plants in Austria, supplying private households. |
Installed this new pump and never looked back… even in the face of high gas prices. And now, he's revealed to Nomi… his colleagues are doing the same. 500,000 more stations are going up nationwide. It's a small army of gas station clerks leading this fight. And you WILL NOT be able to fill your traditional gas cans or cars at these upgraded stations. Click here or the video below so you can see… | | |
| | Sincerely, Maria Bonaventura Senior Managing Editor, Rogue Economics P.S. It's hard to believe how excited these attendants are to make the switch. Go live on the scene with Nomi to see this gas station undergoing a radical change. | | |
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