New Commercial Project in Denmark Features Man-Made Ski Slope

With winter upon us and our local ski resort now open (Mt. Bachelor, Oregon), I felt that it was a fun time to write about a crossover project linking skiing and a new commercial development.

Denmark has committed itself to being a carbon-neutral nation by 2030, and to do so they are constructing a number of green energy plants to replace dirty energy like coal. The new Amager Bakke incinerator in Copenhagen will convert landfill waste to energy - a cleaner alternative to allowing waste to release greenhouse gases as it sits in a landfill. The technology, however, isn't the innovative aspect of this new project.

So what's interesting about it? The new energy plant will feature a functional ski slope. When it opens in 2020, riders will be skiing down 280 vertical feet of three different slopes, all sitting atop a massive waste incinerator. Riders will be lifted back to the top of the slope via elevators, seen in the above image. Being among the flattest countries in the world, this is a hugely creative and functional way to mask an industrial structure.

Construction as it currently stands

The need to mask the aesthetic looks of a power plant lie in the location of the plant. Due to the layout of Denmark's energy and heating grid, it is far more efficient for power plants to be located near it's large population center in Copenhagen. However, few people want to live, work, and play next to a large, unsightly power plant. Thus, this marriage of recreation and power generation is a creative and new way to address industrial development in urban population centers.

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