New record at Gardermoen: Never before have planes been de-iced more often than this winter

Fog on Oslo Airport Gardermoen.Photo: Cornelius Poppe / SCANPIX

Planes had to be de-iced a total of 17,800 times before departing from Oslo Airport this winter.This new record is an increase of 42 percent from last winter.

 

Last season, the de-icing unit was needed 12,500 times, while this season they were called a total of of 17,800 times. The de-icing season is usually from October to May.

Generally, at temperatures around 0 degrees, only hot water with a temperature of about 80 degrees is used. In colder weather, glycol is mixed in.

This means that heating of tens of millions of liters of liquid is required to ensure that the planes can leave in winter. The airport receives its energy requirement of 1 gigawatt hour in winter from Statkraft’s district heating plant at Gardermoen. It is equal to one million kilowatt hours, and the district heating plant uses local wood chips to generate this energy.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today