Area ski resorts

Ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe region are taking steps to shave their energy use to save money and qualify for incentives from power companies.

Heavenly Mountain Resort at South Lake Tahoe uses an average of 16 million kilowatt hours per season, says Director of Communications Russ Pecoraro.

Upgrades to the area's largest snowmaking system by themselves are expected to save the resort more than 700,000 kilowatt-hours per year roughly, enough power to meet the needs of more than 60 typical households.

Additionally, during the past year Heavenly purchased 10 additional high-efficiency snow guns and is retrofitting lighting in its California Lodge to trim costs and earn incentives from NV Energy.

"From a sustainability standpoint, we are trying to do everything we can to operate in this beautiful alpine environment with as little impact as possible, so shaving energy usage is important, and from an economic standpoint we are always trying to be as efficient as possible," Pecoraro says.

Squaw Valley replaced lighting in six buildings and retrofitted its night-skiing lighting system with energy-efficient fiber optics. Over the summer Squaw replaced outdated windows in its Cable Car building for better heat retention, and the resort implemented operational measures to curb energy use. Squaw Valley increased its use of biodiesel fuel nearly 25 percent last season to 6,500 gallons in its fleet of on-road vehicles, and it will replace several snowmobiles with more efficient four-stroke models.

Savannah Cowley, a spokeswoman for the resort, says Squaw conducts annual environmental audits to find additional ways to reduce its energy usage.

"Currently the resort is contracting independent third-party auditing of heating and energy use in the base area and mid-mountain lodge and on-mountain food and beverage facilities," Cowley says. "The resort has already begun to use the information to implement more sustainable practices for facility remodels and by retrofitting buildings and facilities."

This season Squaw Valley installed a new energy-efficient compressor for its snowmaking guns and replaced 92 percent of its old energy-hungry snow guns with more-efficient models. And installing a silicon control rectifying motor to run the cable car saves the resort 440,500 kilowatt hours annually. The motor draws only the amount of power needed to transport the number of people actually on the cable car at any time.

"Ski resort are in an interesting position," Cowley adds. "We are directly impacted by global warming, more so than other industries, so we try to do our part to reduce our carbon footprint. With all the lifts we use so much energy, and reducing our annual kilowatt usage is definitely a long-term project but at the same time, using a lot of energy is an inherent part of the business."

Jessica VanPernis, communications manager for Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, says the resort's older snowmaking guns were retrofitted last summer to achieve a 24 percent increase in energy efficiency. Northstar also added 16 high-efficiency fan guns and 100 low-energy-use stick guns for the upcoming season.

And beginning next year, lighting in all 230 units of Northstar's lodging program will be converted to energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. Older fluorescent light fixtures and bulbs in the Martis Valley Grille and Northstar Resort Golf Course already have been upgraded to high-efficiency fixtures. Sister resort Sierra-at-Tahoe also has upgraded its building lighting.

At Boreal, improvements to the mountain's snowmaking system will result in higher energy efficiency, and the resort also plans to upgrade indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures with energy-efficient lighting.

And at Alpine Meadows which consumes an estimated 1.3 million kilowatt hours of energy in a season the resort has retrofitted all the lighting in its base lodge and mid-mountain chalet to cut costs. It also installed low-flow faucets in its restroom facilities.

The resort near Squaw Valley retrofitted all of its snowmaking guns to use less water than traditional snow-making equipment, Public Relations Manager Rachael Woods says.

"We don't have a goal number to reduce energy usage, but we do try to incorporate simple, common-sense practices, like retrofitting light bulbs and using less water," Woods says.