There's a lot going on in the world at the moment. There's a global pandemic with the Coronavirus and climate change to think about. My mind is always running. No matter what the topic. About the current pandemic I don't have a lot to say, except "please dont panic, take the necessary precautions, stay save and healthy"
Thinking about climate however, with my background in the Energy Sector, sure, I have some ideas. Serious ones but also weird and unusual ones. And sometimes I have these elaborate 'brainfarts', like this one, which I'd like to share and see what the good people of the internet think of this.
We all know that glaciers are melting, due to climate change. Not only at the poles, but also in mountainous regions, like the Alps. A while ago I saw a sporting event, that made me wonder: "Can we build an artificial glacier?"
The sporting event I watched was "Red Bull Crashed Ice". Here they build an obstacle course, which they artificially freeze over, so people can race down over this track on hockeyskates. It looks rather spectacular.
Of course, for a glacier, this is rather small scale, but it's an interesting principle. The track is about 1000 to 1500 feet long. On the frame, they place rubber mats, through which they pump a fluid and a heat exchange takes place. The fluid takes access heat from the track and transports it, lowering the temperature of the track, to below the freezing point. When adding water to the track, it freezes, and off you go. You've got the base for a sporting event.
But, when you can do this on a small scale, would you be able to do this on a large scale. Let's say, 200 feet wide and atleast a mile long. Would that be possible?
Basically you'd need a giant heat exchanger. You'd need to pump a cooling liquid through an artificial system, just underneath the surface of the mountain, to cool it down. As the surface gets cooler, the fluid gets warmer, so here again, you'd need to exchange the heat.
For this, I'd look at a cooling tower, like the ones nuclear powerplants have. This would allow to transfer the heat accumulated from the mountain in to water and then perhaps even in to the air via steam. Where it cools down and becomes rain.
All of this requires energy. Ofcourse you'd want this to be sustainable. As you're going to need cooling water, a hydro-electric powerplant would be ideal, as the water can be used both for cooling as providing all the energy needed.
Ofcourse, I didn't take a deep look in to the possibilities. I didnt study physics or engineering. But looking at how they build a "Crashed Ice Ramp", you'd say that scaling it up to a glacier size should be possible.
Wether or not it's functional in any way, is a whole different matter. But as a little thought-experiment it's quite interesting. (if you're in to such a thing... otherwise it's just weird)
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