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Four thousand meters above sea level, in the largest ice bodies outside of the northern and southern polar glacier sheets, a group of farmers, engineers, and scientists working at Acres of Ice are leading the way in glacial conservation.
The Himalayan glaciers, an area home to two billion people, are essential for food, water, and energy security. These glaciers spread through eight Asian countries? —but are on the verge of losing 80% of their volume if nothing is done.
Techopedia sat with Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian PhD., an agritech expert and co-founder of Acres of Ice, to understand how they use automated technologies to tap into glacial streams, send water through nozzles and create ice particles to build artificial glaciers to reverse climate change impacts.
About Suryanarayanan (Surya) Balasubramanian, PhD.
Surya has a doctorate from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and leverages his expertise in glaciology and advanced technology to develop Automated Ice Reservoirs (AIR) in the Himalayan communities.
After working in the region, driven by the desire to deepen his understanding of artificial glacier technology, Surya pursued a PhD from 2019-2023.
Through this PhD, he developed an automation system that can make ice structures comparable in area to natural glaciers with little maintenance.
Key Takeaways
- Acres of Ice uses automated technology to build and maintain ice reservoirs in the Himalayas.
- The team has successfully implemented their automated ice reservoirs in Igoo, Ladakh.
- The AIR system reduces maintenance visits, increases water storage capacity and improves overall efficiency compared to traditional methods.
- The technology is relatively inexpensive and scalable, and results in small contributions having a big impact on mountain communities facing climate change.
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The Tech Acres of Ice Uses to Build Glaciers
Q: Could you list the technological components of your automated ice reservoir system and how each one drives the system?
A: Given the correct weather (W) and pressure (P) conditions, the system builds ice reservoirs automatically and is maintenance-free.
We tap into a spring or glacial water source from which water is extracted through pipelines. Mechanized valves control the water flow through either drain or spray modes. When the W-P conditions are correct, the spray mode is activated, and the valves allow the water to flow from the source to the fountain.
Otherwise, the system goes into drain mode, allowing air to flow through the pipeline, and water is pushed back into the stream.
This is all controlled through a printed circuit board (PCB), which decides which mode is active based on all sensor inputs. The PCB also hosts an app that collects all the data for villagers’ ease of use.
Our 3D-printed fountains account for the complex relationship between water droplet size, trajectory, and weather conditions.
Teams and Tech Working In Extreme Environments
Q: You work in rugged terrain under harsh environments. How does the team cope, and how does the tech adapt to endure these conditions?
A: Due to the harsh environments we work in, half of our team contributes remotely. Those who are involved directly in the installations and troubleshooting activities try to test most of the equipment before the winter commences.
To endure the winter, we choose high-quality products to build our tech and also use protective insulations to make them function.
Furthermore, we also established a local water management committee from the village that could make weekly visits to the installations to identify and report issues in our tech.
Glacier Technology Works: Milestones and Achievements
A: Can you share some milestones or achievements of your tech?
Our automated ice reservoirs in Igoo (a town in Ladakh, nestled in a mountain valley, the highest plateau in India) reduced maintenance frequency from daily to monthly.
The system achieved two times more water storage with a water use efficiency of more than 80%. It avoided pipeline freezing events, made fountain pipeline systems resilient and responsive to erratic weather events, and achieved total water storage of more than 4 million liters.
Through the use of our automation technology during the past winter [2023-2024], we were able to revive the tradition of building ice reservoirs in Igoo. The automated ice reservoir(AIR) has reduced monitoring visits from every other day to twice a month.
It has stored more than 4 million liters of water for an efficiency of more than 80%, compared to just 20% for traditional ones, which are typically 1 million liters in volume.
Moreover, these structures grow throughout the year by finding ideal weather windows to operate the fountain spray.
This upgraded technology can yield a perennial ice reservoir that compounds in size every winter and compensates for the lost ecosystem services of natural glaciers.
Therefore, we have kept the AIR operational across the spring and summer seasons to test whether it can preserve the ice reservoir until next winter starts.
Projects and Tech that Work With Local Communities
Q: How important is it to establish good relationships with local communities and how do you engage with them for support?
A: It’s crucial to involve the local communities to ensure our technology operates long-term since it’s not feasible to conduct monitoring visits regularly — especially when these locations don’t have internet for remote observations.
We support these communities by establishing a water management committee (WMC) and training them on the maintenance of our tech and other water management techniques like drip irrigation.
Eventually, such a WMC can ensure all the water storage and distribution devices remain functional long term
Climate Change Tech That Makes an Impact Without Breaking the Bank
A: Many believe that having a positive impact on a community, especially through climate resilience actions requires a lot of investment and large teams. What would you say to them?
Q: This is not true. Historically, many of these water management activities in Ladakh were funded through just household contributions. These households earn less than $40,000 per annum but collectively were able to allocate budgets of up to $4,000 for climate resilience activities.
Of course, the climate change adaptation issues have scaled in size these days, but even a small contribution can sustain mountain communities in the long run.
The Right Talent, the Right Teams
Q: How did you get started or involved in glacier-building technology?
A: My involvement began as a volunteer in the Ice Stupa Project led by Sonam Wangchuk back in 2015. I later managed the initiative until 2019. This experience drove me to pursue a PhD on the topic to understand the weather influences that enabled this tech and design choices that could improve it.
After completing the PhD in 2023, I moved on to create a startup to implement the software and hardware outputs that came out of it in real-world conditions.
Q: What talent do the experts on your team have, and how do these diverse roles contribute to your success?
A: I have been involved with the Ice Stupa project for 7 years and have a PhD in Switzerland on ice reservoir technology.
Basit Afzal has a decade of experience implementing water management strategies like micro-irrigation systems. Moreover, as founders we have both worked extensively with local Ladakh NGOs, helping more than 500 farmers use the automated ice reservoir technology.
We also have mechanical engineers to design efficient fountains and electronic engineers to manufacture printed circuit boards. The maintenance of the automation system will be ensured through the villagers and our field manager. Readers can learn more about our company’s first year of operations through this blog post.
The Future of Acres of Ice
Q: What’s next for Acres of Ice? What projects do you have for the future?
A: We estimate that around 14 million people are affected in over 14 thousand villages spread across 16 countries in the Hindu Kush Himalayas and the Andes mountain ranges.
The most affected country seems to be Bolivia with over 32% of the population living over 3,500 metres above sea level. Tibet is where most people reside near glaciers.
We derived these estimates from worldwide population datasets that live above 3,500m in elevation in glacial regions. The impact numbers are much larger in reality. For example, countries with glaciers having population centers at lower altitudes are omitted like in the Alps.
We want to support climate adaptation in these villages that are directly dependent on glacial melt-water for their irrigation needs. To do this, we are currently designing automation kits to build artificial glaciers in these desertifying mountain villages.
This kit will have our custom-designed controller, valves, and fountains, along with a manual on how to decide the pipeline layout and water source. Our users can then download the software from our website to activate the controller and build an ice reservoir by assembling all the components using our manual.
If the internet is available, the user can also observe and control this system via our web dashboard. We will also use these kits to defuse thousands of glacial lakes to build and maintain artificial glaciers. We will also introduce more solutions for glacial water resource management, like artificial snow or fleece covers, drip irrigation systems, and more.
The first test of these automation kits will be deployed this winter in ten villages of Ladakh and some villages in Peru and Nepal within a year.
