Due to the reduction of skid resistance of pavement surfaces caused by snow and ice, severe economic losses and injuries related to transport are provoked. Winter conditions on roads cause traffic delays that cost 1% of the EU’s GDP and 1,000 causalities annually. Similarly, snowfall causes air traffic disturbance that can cost €57.3M per storm. For pedestrians, a 25% increase in hospitalization and a 33% rise in cases of hip fractures are observed during winter. Current solutions suffer from many shortcomings. The most popular are plowing and salting which are manual, offer slow response times, damage pavement surfaces, accelerate vehicle corrosion, and induce environmental pollution. Thus, effective snow and ice prevention is a challenge.
The SNOWLESS project offers an energy-efficient and instant snow-melting and de-icing solution. It overcomes the above-stated drawbacks by using proprietary amorphous alloy heating ribbons that are embedded in pavements and operated completely automatically via a control unit with a real-time dynamic response. Essentially, Snowless converts electrical energy into radiant heat energy for melting snow on the surface, being an environmentally friendly solution when the electricity comes from renewable and green sources. In addition to combating snow and ice, the Snowless system can be operated to prevent low-temperature cracking of asphalt concrete layers and limit the depth and duration of frost penetration into pavement structures and subgrade.
We aim to commercialize Snowless by 2023 for infrastructure applications such as city roads, seaports, airports, and highways. We anticipate revenue and profit of €50M and €15M respectively coming from sales over 5 years, creating 21 employment opportunities.
During the project it has been shown that Snowless heating system is a solution, not only for melting snow and preventing surface ice, but can also prevent low-temperature cracking of asphalt concrete. an added feature which transforms pavement systems, traditionally passive, into active climate-resilient constructions
