The Japanese city of Aomori, one of Japan's snowiest cities, will launch a unique experiment to try to produce electricity from snow. According to Nikkei Asia, the experiment will be conducted jointly with Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications and Forte technology startup. It will start in December and run until the end of March.
As part of the experiment, snow collected from the streets will be loaded into a pool at a shuttered school. Heat transfer tubes will be placed in the snow, which will act as the source of cold air. Meanwhile, the outside air will be heated by the sun.
A convection current will be created inside a turbine due to the difference in temperatures. As a result, the convection current will rotate the turbine to generate electricity. The greater the temperature difference between the snow and the outside air, the greater the efficiency of power generation.
Snow energy is expected to be generated at a low cost. Moreover, the proposed solution with snow has virtually no waste, whereas solar panels have to be recycled over time. And the use of snow to generate electricity is much more environmentally friendly