Snow time: Japanese authorities use a 200m-wide pile of insulated snow to cool Hokkaido airport

This winter, a mound of snow 100 by 200 metres long and between 8 and 15 metres high will be created by snow ploughs, and then covered with insulation.

The Tokyo Regional Civil Aviation Bureau hopes that the snow pile can then be used from spring 2010 to provide cooling to the airport, saving an estimated 2,100 tons of CO₂each year.

This article first appeared in the Ecologist April 2009