Hurtigruten has announced that their land-based adventure travel company will be providing tours that include electric snow mobiles. A Finnish start-up company called Aurora Powertrains will be providing the technology to make this happen.
With the eSled snowmobiles, Hurtigruten expands its battery revolution on shore—adding a truly unique experience for adventurous Arctic explorers.
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“At Aurora Powertrains, we have a global mission to make ‘Snowmobiling Recharged.’ eSled is based on ready-made chassis, combined with revolutionary technology. This will take Hurtigruten Svalbard’s guests into the Arctic wilderness, without emissions, or the risk of disturbing wildlife,” says Ari Karjalainen, CEO of Aurora Powertrains, Ltd.
While that’s interesting news, I thought it was even more interesting that Hurtigruten is also setting up it’s own power infrastructure which it will use to charge these snow mobiles. Because, you know, who really wants to get stranded on a snow mobile without power near the Arctic Circle or anywhere?
To fully utilize the green potential in the sustainable operation of electric snowmobiles, Hurtigruten Svalbard will set up a separate power supply including solar panels, a windmill and battery packs for energy storage. The complete renewable energy solution will be delivered by Assemblin AS.
“Our eSleds and the entire operation will literally be powered by the midnight sun and Arctic winds. For us, this is only the beginning—we’re already planning similar solutions to be installed at our hotels and other parts of our Svalbard operation,” says Krisztina Uzonyi, Hurtigruten Svalbard destination director.
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In the month of May of this year, my family had the privilege of touring with Hurtigruten by sea along the coast of Norway. That “midnight sun” is really cool and it’s pretty surreal to be on a boat with the sun shining at you at 1 AM. Having an interest in solar energy, I wondered why not rely more on solar energy during the summer months.
I’m not so sure how power from the Sun is going to work during snow mobile season as the nights are much longer . So it seems to me that “windmill power” will be much more of the renewable energy for snowmobiling purposes.
Anyone actually ridden on an electric snowmobile? I wonder how the batteries do during the cold of winter?
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