TechnoAlpin: Serre Chevalier Ensures Snow Production

The French ski resort of Serre Chevalier, the northernmost ski resort in the French Southern Alps, has always been a pioneer in the sustainable use of its resources, whether by using the existing snowmaking infrastructure to generate hydroelectric power or by regularly upgrading its snowmaking systems.

For the coming season, the operator of Serre Chevalier has commissioned TechnoAlpin to modernise and expand the snowmaking systems in the Méa - Villeneuve - Le Bez area. The project includes the redesign of several machine rooms to optimise water consumption, the upgrading of the snowmaking fleet to improve production performance and the equipping of the existing slopes with snowmaking machines.

To improve the overall efficiency of snow production, a TC60 cooling tower will be installed in one of the plant's existing machine rooms. The aim is to cool the water in order to be able to provide the snowmakers with the optimal water temperature. For example, if the snowmaking water is 4 °C cooler, snow production can be started at a wet bulb temperature that is 1 °C warmer. This can be crucial, especially when it comes to snowmaking at marginal temperatures.

In addition, to increase the pumping capacity in 3 machine rooms, several existing pumps will be replaced with new snowmaking pumps. A total of 6 new pumps will be installed in the system. To further increase the energy efficiency of the machine rooms, the new pumps will be driven by frequency converters. This new equipment and the new design of the snowmaking process and installation architecture will make it possible to improve the overall efficiency of snow production and resource management.

For the snow guns, 6 new TT10 fan guns will be supplied. These will replace the outdated Turbocristal fan guns. With this decision, Serre Chevalier will benefit from the most advanced fan gun technology that TechnoAlpin has developed to date, which enables top performance both in marginal temperatures and in cold weather. In addition to the TT10s, 4 new TL4 lances will be supplied. With the aim of reducing the energy consumption of the largest snow guns while optimizing quality and instant snow production, 28 older generation lance heads will be replaced.

Finally, ATASSpro, TechnoAlpin's state-of-the-art snowmaking software, will control part of the system in the 2024/25 season before being expanded to the rest of the facility in the future.

TechnoAlpin is very proud to bring such a perspective to Serre Chevalier’s projects and looks forward to an increased and promising collaboration in the coming years