Cold ice, warm sidewalks

Waste heat from the Olympic Center refrigeration system is recycled to melt snow and ice from sidewalks

Story by Zachary Matson, photos by Mike Lynch

Standing on the outdoor deck at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, the line between village sidewalks and those controlled by the Olympic Regional Development Authority is clear as a bluebird sky.

The village sidewalks leading up to the Olympic arena were covered in a light dusting of snow in early December, while the ORDA walkways were clear and dry. The sidewalks on ORDA’s side of the line draw from the waste heat produced as a byproduct of keeping four massive ice rinks frozen. 

Since ORDA overhauled the Olympic Center’s refrigeration system in 2021, it has recirculated heated glycol through a series of pipes installed in the sidewalks outside the main entrance to the hockey and ice skating arena.

The heated paths serve ORDA’s sustainability mission and are an innovative, albeit hard-to-scale, low-salt solution to keeping walkways safe in winter. The same waste heat also keeps the second-floor deck clear of snow and ice and assists the facility’s Zamboni operation. 

Eric Martin, who operates the Olympic Center refrigeration system, is responsible for guaranteeing the right ice conditions for the right rinks at the right time. He said repurposing the heat is common sense. 

“We already paid for that,” Martin said. “As long as these machines are running, I’m generating waste heat.”

Morgan Ryan, an ORDA spokesperson, said the Olympic Center uses salt on “a very limited basis” when necessary for safe driving or on walkways. The refrigeration upgrades, part of broader spending on ORDA facilities throughout the region, cost $11.5 million. The old system was shut down on Feb. 28, 2021 and the new one went into operation on Jan. 4, 2022. 

The refrigeration’s system’s engine room sits under the southeast stands of the main rink, housing four 600-horsepower compressors. Pipes run in and out of the room, carrying chilled glycol to the concrete slabs that hold the ice rink. 

Computer screens around the room give Martin the touch-screen ability to monitor and adjust the system. He can control it from his phone or computer, making tweaks remotely.

He glanced at the settings during a recent tour. The central U.S.A. rink was a balmy 20, while the other two were a couple degrees cooler. 

Before the system overhaul, Martin labored to keep everything in order. Occasionally, he said, he had to track down replacement parts on eBay. “It was very nerve wracking,” he said.

Much of the system is automated, adjusting to changing conditions to maintain the ice. The compressors will switch on and off as needed. 

“If the sun came out and it warmed up, this thing ramps up on its own,” Martin said as he stood in front of one of the massive compressors. 

So it doesn’t create too large a strain on the village’s electrical grid, the system eases in gradually. The Olympic Center is the village’s largest energy user. An electrical bill could run as high as $4,000 on a sunny day. 

The outdoor skating oval is the most difficult, and most energy intensive, to maintain. This winter it was open to skaters the Friday after Thanksgiving. To do that, ORDA started cooling the slab on Monday, running three of the compressor machines continuously during the holiday week.  

The oval, the only rink that was entirely replaced as part of the rehabilitation, contains 38 miles of one-inch piping embedded into the concrete slab the rink sits on. To keep the rink frozen, 45,000 gallons of glycol pumps through those pipes. 

The center’s trio of indoor rinks – the 1932, 1980 and U.S.A. – require more finesse. Martin, with one full-time apprentice and a high school intern on Fridays, must account for humidity, outdoor weather, sunlight, time of day, the number of people in the crowd and the type of event being hosted when managing the ice.

“Each human body puts out about 300 BTUs,” Martin said. 

Curling events require a hard, cold ice, while skaters prefer a little softer surface. During hockey tournaments, coaches will often recognize Martin and offer opinions on how the ice might better serve their athletes.   

The heat waste is also repurposed to melt piles left by the Zambonis, scraping a thin layer of ice in the process. That excess ice is melted and drained quickly with the help of waste heat. 

The waste heat can also help melt an entire rink. When crews remove the ice, they melt it down until it releases from the concrete slab in massive chunks.

In the summer, if they need to melt a rink to repaint lines or set up a different use, they can redirect warm glycol from the outdoor oval and melt an entire indoor rink in 30 minutes, Martin said. Glycol can reach up to 90 degrees for this purpose. 

“It goes in cool and comes back warm,” Martin said. 

In his seventh year at the Olympic Center, Martin previously worked on the refrigeration system at grocery chain Wegmans’ main distribution hub. He said he spent two years applying before getting the ORDA job. 

As you walk across the heated sidewalks and through the center’s main entrance, one of the four sides of the scoreboard from the famous 1980 Winter Olympic men’s hockey final hangs on a lobby wall. A recently remodeled museum reminds visitors about the region’s sports history. As he thinks about his personal bucket-list, Martin has his eyes on the future. 

“I want to work at least one Winter Olympics,” Martin said.