Hautes-Pyrénées: ski resorts face the challenge of energy sobriety

In Cauterets, the director of the station, Dorian Noyer, wants to remain optimistic in energy management at a time when efforts in this area are part of the operation of the estate: “I think we have done quite well.

DSF, Domaines Skiables de France, announced the color asking ski resorts to count on a reduction in energy consumption. However, at the beginning of winter, we made big savings, it wasn’t cold, there was less snow and less attendance. In December we recorded a sharp decline to reach – 20% in terms of energy in January”.
During the February holidays, which ended on Sunday, the efforts continued with the implementation of new tools: “Of course, we turned down the heating and installed the clocks so that nothing remained in the evening. We have also lowered the speed of the ski lifts and gondola. We have invested 50,000 euros in undermetering devices”.
Indeed, where it took 12 minutes to connect Cauterets to the ski resort, it now takes 15 minutes. Three short minutes make the difference: “When you go from 6 metres/second to 4 metres/second, you can save 50% energy with a 30% slowdown”.

It goes from 800 kW/h to 400 kW/h

Patrons enjoy the scenery and time flies by anyway.
The manoeuvre, however, cannot be continuous so as not to congest the premises: “It is the queue that marks the time. When the parking lot is full, we go up to 6 meters per second for two hours to keep people from waiting too long. When you go down to 4 meters per second, you go from 800 kW/h to 400 kW/h”.
Other measures have been taken, such as automatic doors or closets where skiers leave their equipment to dry: “We program it at night. The skier may wonder why the wardrobe is cold but the next day his boots are dry”.
Cauterets benefits from an advantage over other stations, its snow cover which does not require excessive turning of the snow cannons: “We produce very little snow from artificial snow due to the good exposure of the station “Despite all these efforts, Dorian Noyer do not hide that the bill has not dropped, on the contrary: “Even by lowering consumption, we will pay more than 2.5 times as much, a bill that will be around 1.2 million euros, while in 2022 we were at 450,000 euros. In terms of energy costs, we will therefore go from 5 to 6% of turnover to 10-12%.It is still worrying”.
The issuer will still play the late opening card, until April 23rd.