A new entry in the top ten biggest indoor snow centres in the world list will open in Shanghai later this year, and will be the latest to get a chunk of the energy it needs to make snow and keep its interior below freezing from a vast solar array on its roof.

The idea of photovoltaic panels covering the huge rooves on indoor snow centres has been the norm in countries like The Netherlands and Germany for over a decade. However the new Wintastar Shanghai is the first to think of using coloured panels to create a ski mountainscape mural visible to passing aircraft, if not from space.

With an indoor snow area of 45,000 square metres (about 11 acres) Wintastar will slot in to 4^th spot in the list of the 10 biggest indoor snow centres in the world, six of which, including the three larger than Wintastar, are in China, which now has more than 50 indoor snow centres. That’s about a third of the world total, with indoor snow centres now to be found in more than 30 countries on six continents, including places like Brazil, Egypt and Pakistan.

The world’s largest, at Herbin in Northeastern China, with 72,600 sqm of indoor snow, opened in 2017. Unusually it’s actually warmer to ski indoors there in winter -5C, than at one of the nearby outdoor ski resorts, where temperatures regularly drop to -30C.

China has gone indoor snow centre crazy over the past five years, with facilities popping up in every province.  Being about to ski or snowboard in the country’s heavily populated humid southern provinces without needing to travel long distance to the frigid north where most of the regular ski resorts are is particularly popular. 

The current 4^th largest indoor centre in the world is the SNO centre near Oslo. This opened in 2020 just before the pandemic hit and is a carbon neutral facility, providing year-round snow skiing, that exports excess green energy it generates to nearby buildings.  Another indoor snow centre at Neuss in Germany recently expanded its solar array to fill surrounding fields as well as covering its roof, with the result that all of its year-round energy consumption, including that of an adjacent 130 room hotel, is generated on-site.

Wintastar was first announced in 2015 by Singapore based developers KOP Properties with a A price tag of 13.5 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) and an opening date of 2019 given at the time, but construction did not get underway until 2021 by which time were KOP were no longer involved.  It has so far gone under names including Shanghai Snow World, Shanghai Ice & Snow Star, Winterland Shanghai and Winterstar over the last nine years.

The facility will be and feature a ski-in / ski-out chalet-style hotel that will bring the slopes right to guests’ doorsteps.

Besides the indoor snow the original plan for Wintastar included an Olympic sized ice rink, 20,000 sqm Waterpark (Partially on the roof), shopping mall and more than 1000 four and five star hotel rooms, operated by Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). A monorail, gardens, numerous restaurants as well as an ultra-modern full entertainment centre with a 4-D cinema, theatrical shows and concerts were also part of the plans.

As of 2022 Snow World features 3 ski trails with snow coverage of more than 45,000 sq/m and an elaborate winter themed snow play park providing a wide variety of activities for all age groups over multiple floors of the 60m high venue.

Axis is responsible for taking the operational aspects of the Snow World project through the construction and handover phase, through to grand opening, including all aspects of operational preparation, human resources and sales and marketing.

The project’s name has changed several times during the development process and different companies have moved in or moved out over the years. Up until early 2022 it was known as WintaStar Shanghai.

At one point the MAF Group which runs Ski Dubai, Ski Egypt and Snow Oman on the other side of Asia were lined up to operate the centre when  complete but it is unclear if that is still the case.