News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan

Green snow machines running in northern Michigan this winter

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Janos Rusiczki

This year a northern Michigan ski resort says it will be using environmentally friendly snowmakers on its slopes.

Officials with Boyne say they have created the most energy efficient marginal temperature snowmaking machines in the world.

Erin Ernst is the communications director for Boyne Resorts. She said the snowmaking machines for marginal temperatures are particularly important during warmer winters.

“Those temperatures are anything above 25 degrees. Particularly in the beginning of the seasons we see a lot of days where they temperatures go up, they go down, and these Boyne low-e fan guns are really fantastic producers for the marginal temperatures and they help us get our terrain open and expanded very quickly.”

Ernst said the green machines create four times the output of the average snow machine with half the energy.

“All of the technology really starts here and then we refine it and then we roll it out at our sister properties next.”

Ernst said the technology, which was co-developed with Midland-based SMI, was first tested during the 2015/16 season.

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