Cool winter ice by winter

In late November, Mongolia will implement one of the world's largest ice-making facilities to reduce the need for energy use in the summer.

The Ulan Bator-funded trial will retain the giant ice mass in the winter to cool and supply the city with water as it melts gradually in the summer.

Scientists from the £ 460,000 project hope this block will help reduce the need for electricity to run air conditioning and operate a water supply and irrigation system. If successful, the model will apply to other cities located in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ulan Bator City of Mongolia.

Engineers will create ultra-thin ice sheets - like natural ice sheets in remote areas of the north when water from rivers or streams flows through cracks in the surface. ice sheets in the daytime, then add a layer of ice on that surface at night. Different from the ice formation on the lake surface - only about 1 meter thick, ice sheets formed in the northern regions can be up to 7m thick, meaning that their melting time is longer than usual.

ECOS & EMI of Mongolia will re-create this process by drilling many holes on the ice surface as soon as the ice forms on the Tuul River. Water will overflow on the surface and then freeze again. This process will create layers of overlapping ice during the winter.

The quality of such ice blocks has been known for hundreds of years. The North Korean military used it to create river-crossing roads for tanks in the winter, and Russia used it as a base for the rig.

Mongolian engineers believe that the Ulan Bator project will be used in cities in the northern hemisphere around the world, where hot summers and winter temperatures range from -5C to -20C.