For those who have watched the Bollywood movie “3 idiots”, the role of Dr Phunsuk Wangdu was/is inspired by Sonam Wangchuk.
Ice stupas are quite a sight if you happen to visit Leh Ladakh area in India
Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#12The Minnesota versions of those are the places they dump snow cleared from roads. Some of them last into July. Somebody should tell these guys to add a nice insulating layer of dirt. https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/06/despite-heat-snow-...
Its how the local hospital here is cooled during the summer. Large pile of snow which is covered in wood chips. Apparently it generated 1345,3 MWh cooling energy in 2002.. http://www.snowpower.se/sundsvalls-kylanlaggning_en.asp
Picture: http://miljonytta.se/byggnader/lagrad-sno-ger-fjarrkyla/
(Site's down for me)
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#13The Minnesota versions of those are the places they dump snow cleared from roads. Some of them last into July. Somebody should tell these guys to add a nice insulating layer of dirt. https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/06/despite-heat-snow-...
Why don't you mail the guy? or message him on facebook.
Seems like this would have occured to them already, over the hundreds of hours of time invested.
Anyway, it seems to me that dirt would absorb more heat than ice, resulting in faster melting.
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#14The Minnesota versions of those are the places they dump snow cleared from roads. Some of them last into July. Somebody should tell these guys to add a nice insulating layer of dirt. https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/06/despite-heat-snow-...
It's something they could store underground to help refrigeration in summer for e.g. public buildings. Actually that (= storing ice in winter in a basement) is how refrigeration was often done before the invention of the refrigerator / freezer.
This is actually still done in many large cities with time-of-day electricity prices. The cooling is done using typical cooling equipment, but instead of directly cooling the air in the building during the day, ice is built up thoughout the night when electricity is cheap and the outdoor air is cool. During the day, the air in the building is cooled with melting ice and the normal refrigeration equipment is used as a daytime backup only.
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#15Watched Dune the other day. Seems very reminiscent of moisture traps. A simple idea that enables long term storage of moisture for when it is most needed.
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#16How many of these things would be needed? It seems a great idea if you can harvest the melt water directly, but the idea is to let it seep into the streams and rivers. This thing looks big, but compared to the volume of water carried by even a tiny stream it is nothing. Water for drinking is measured in liters. Water for agriculture is measured in terms of acre-feet (just over 1x10^6 liters). I'm thinking perhaps a million such structures would be needed to make any real difference to agriculture below a particular watershed. If they all need underground pipes then this would become a huge project, akin to more traditional approaches such as dams.
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#17The Minnesota versions of those are the places they dump snow cleared from roads. Some of them last into July. Somebody should tell these guys to add a nice insulating layer of dirt. https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/06/despite-heat-snow-...
Its how the local hospital here is cooled during the summer. Large pile of snow which is covered in wood chips. Apparently it generated 1345,3 MWh cooling energy in 2002.. http://www.snowpower.se/sundsvalls-kylanlaggning_en.asp
Cornell does something similar, using Cayuga Lake as a heat sink for their campus cooling:
https://medium.com/cornell-university/lake-source-cooling-d3...
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its how the local hospital here is cooled during the summer. Large pile of snow which is covered in wood chips. Apparently it generated 1345,3 MWh cooling energy in 2002.. http://www.snowpower.se/sundsvalls-kylanlaggning_en.asp
Cornell does something similar, using Cayuga Lake as a heat sink for their campus cooling: https://medium.com/cornell-university/lake-source-cooling-d3...
As does the city of Toronto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_source_cooling
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#19How many of these things would be needed? It seems a great idea if you can harvest the melt water directly, but the idea is to let it seep into the streams and rivers. This thing looks big, but compared to the volume of water carried by even a tiny stream it is nothing. Water for drinking is measured in liters. Water for agriculture is measured in terms of acre-feet (just over 1x10^6 liters). I'm thinking perhaps a m…
I don't think this is meant for commercial agriculture. It's for small communities that grow their own food.
Re: Can ice structures solve a Himalayan water crisis?
#20The Minnesota versions of those are the places they dump snow cleared from roads. Some of them last into July. Somebody should tell these guys to add a nice insulating layer of dirt. https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/06/despite-heat-snow-...
Snow cleared from road is exceptionally dirty. It has sand, salt, any other chemicals used for snowmelt, and then engine oil.