Every year around this time, construction workers and architects prepare to erect the annual Icehotel in Sweden.
The hotel, which is made of ice, of course, stays up for the entire winter, attracting thousands of visitors, before melting away a season later in the spring. However, this winter is set to be different, as the same Icehotel is preparing for a permanent subzero experience, available year-round.
How? Well, the developers behind the hotel announced that they plan on keeping the ice solid by using rooftop solar panels—even during the summer.
"This groundbreaking initiative lets our guests decide whether they want to combine Icehotel with dog sledding and northern lights, or hiking under the midnight sun," said Icehotel founder Yngve Bergqvist in a company press release. "It just lets us meet the desires of our clients in a way whole new way."
How can sunlight via rooftop solar panels be used as sustainable energy for a hotel made of ice without melting it?
Hans Eek, architect and one of the sustainable construction design experts on the project, says it's quite easy to understand.
"It really couldn't be any simpler—we use the physics of Isaac Newton—the same that we normally use to make energy efficient housing that keeps the cold out, only in this project we use it in reverse," he explains.
The new Icehotel experience, operating year-round in Jukkasjärvi, about 124 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is scheduled to open in December 2016.
"We've created many temporary ice experiences in the past, and we've seen an increasing interest for visiting Icehotel not just in winter," Bergqvist said. "Every summer we have international visitors who arrive in Jukkasjärvi and ask us where they can see Icehotel—I look forward to being able to point it out to them!"
