"We save 50,000 kilowatt hours"

I am very pleased that we are having an almost normal Christmas market again this year. In 2020 he was canceled due to Corona, last year there were many conditions. Now we can offer visitors mulled wine stands and other cozy places again. We hope that the market will bring tourists back to the city and strengthen the inner city. This year, however, we don't have an ice rink for the first time. This is currently the case in many cities because of the high energy costs. We calculated how much electricity the ice rink uses and came up with 50,000 kilowatt hours in just under six weeks at the Christmas market. This is enough to supply 20 single-family homes with electricity for a year. That's why we decided at the beginning of the year to replace the ice rink with a synthetic rink. We wanted to save CO2 and do something about climate change. It was not foreseeable at the time that we would also save a lot of money.

Last winter, the Hammer Eisbären, our ice hockey club, asked if we would like to use their plastic track at the Christmas market, on which they train in the summer. We were skeptical at first and wanted to know if the skating experience was comparable to that on a normal ice rink. We then spoke to the players, figure skaters and curlers from Schwarz-Rot Soest. Ice stock sport is part of our Christmas market, we offer it for groups. Everyone we spoke to said there was little difference with real ice cream and so we did.

We opened the Christmas market last week and the plastic sheeting was a hit with everyone. In the coming weeks we will see how the track performs outdoors. So far it has always been used with a roof.