In the Japanese city of Aomori in the north of the island of Hongsu, a pilot project was launched to obtain electricity during snow melting, reports on Sunday, January 8, Kyodo.
For this purpose, snow is collected in a specially isolated former school pool, and the liquid obtained by melting sets the turbine, evaporating due to heat of the surrounding air. This project appeared in the cooperation of a local IT company with the Tokyo University of Electrical Communication.
Aomori lies in the northern part of Japan, every winter there is an extensive snow loss, on the consequences of which local authorities spend a lot of money. The snow masses, from which the city streets were cleaned, previously simply dropped into the sea. Now local authorities are trying to benefit from collected snow – using natural melting processes to obtain electricity.
In the case of a favorable result of the experiment, they hope for the emergence of a whole new industry based on snow processing.