Swedish hospital meets summer cooling needs by storing winter snow under wood chips
Sundsvall Regional Hospital stores winter snow beneath a layer of wood chips and circulates the meltwater in summer, covering 93% of its cooling demand in the first year.
To satisfy environmental targets and national regulations, Sundsvall Regional Hospital in central Sweden installed a large snow-storage facility in 1999, covering 140 metres by 60 metres and holding up to 60,000 cubic metres of snow (approximately 40,000 tonnes). A watertight asphalt base and a wood-chip blanket reduced natural melt to 20-30% of the volume, allowing the snow to persist through the summer months. Meltwater is pumped into the hospital’s cooling network, absorbing heat, then returned to the pit where it gradually refreezes.
During the first operational year the arrangement met about 93% of the hospital’s cooling demand, which totals roughly 1,000 MWh annually with a peak power need of 1,500 kW. The project’s results were published by Kjell Skogsberg and Bo Nordell in Cold Regions Science and Technology in 2001.
Why it matters
The system shows how low-carbon, seasonal storage can dramatically cut energy use for large facilities.
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