An indoor snow centre in Germany has become fully self-sufficient in green energy by building a vast field of solar panels covering the ground on two sides of the huge building.

The Neuss Alpine Park has covered an area of ​​30,000 m² generating enough solar power to cover the entire energy needs not just of its indoor snow hall but also all associated buildings.

The process to make the Neuss Alpine Park CO₂ neutral took more than two years of planning with construction starting in the summer of 2022. Work is now completed and the system is completely connected to the grid.

In addition to the large photovoltaic systems, a combined heat and power plant was also built, which uses an intelligent heat recovery system.

The entire Alpine Park, including the Neuss ski hall, the 101 room Hotel Fire & Ice, as well as the large restaurants, conference rooms and the associated outdoor facilities, as well as Alpine chalets, can now fully cover their energy needs from their own electricity generation.

The centre’s parking lot right next to the Neuss ski hall has also been completely renovated in the past few weeks. 30 charging stations for e-cars now round.

Neuss Alpine Park is the latest of many indoor snow centres, particularly in Germany and The Netherlands, to focus on sustainable energy with a number covering their rooves in photovoltaic panels which supply much of their energy needs.

One of the world’s biggest SnowWorld Landgraaf in The Netherlands, covered its roof a few years ago and is now self-sufficient in summer, although not quite in winter. However other than the SNO indoor centre which opened in Oslo recently designed to be already more than CO₂ neutral from day one and actually exporting excess renewable energy generated on site to the grid, The Neuss Alpine Park is believed to be the first to retro-fit on-site energy production to become 100% carbon neutral.

Scotland’s only indoor snow centre, Snow Factor near Glasgow, blamed rapidly increasing energy costs for its closure in autumn 2022.