When it comes to bucket list ski destinations, there are the Alps in Switzerland, the Rockies in the United States — and the roof of a sustainable power plant in Denmark? If you’re looking for a unique experience, then a resounding yes to that last one.
Located on the water in Copenhagen is the Amager Resource Center, a waste-to-energy plant that provides heat and electricity to tens of thousands of households. And atop the building is CopenHill, an artificial mountain with a nearly 1,500-foot ski slope, four ski lifts, a hiking trail, restaurant, kids area, and more. If that weren’t mind-boggling enough, die-hard adventurers can scale the side of the peak via the world’s highest climbing wall, a towering 278 feet.
Denmark has long been considered a pioneer in clean energy, with nearly 70% of its electricity derived from renewable sources as of January 2024, per the International Trade Administration. Waste and biofuel are significant contributors to the nation’s total renewable energy, along with wind and solar power. And according to BIG, the Danish architecture firm that created CopenHill, the plant is the cleanest of its kind.
What the country doesn’t have, though, is elevation. In other words, it’s totally flat. That played into the impetus behind the project, Bjarke Ingels, the firm’s founder, told the BBC when it opened in 2019.
“There are absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark,” said Ingels. “So we got to the idea that we could actually create a manmade mountain for alpine skiing.” He added: “A power plant doesn’t have to be some kind of ugly box that blocks the views or casts shadows on its neighbors. It can actually be, maybe the most popular park in a city.”
The firm stopped short of carting in real snow for the slope, instead using Neveplast, a green plastic surface that provides a somewhat similar feel.
“It takes typically three runs to adjust your mind to skiing on a green dry surface. It’s very technical,” Kenneth Boggild, secretary general of Ski Federation Denmark, explained to The New York Times. “Wear long sleeves, gloves, long pants, and a helmet in case you fall.”
But there is plenty of real greenery on CopenHill — also referred to as Amager Bakke — as well. The year it opened there were 7,000 bushes, 300 pine and willow trees, and various other plants, as well as actual grass growing through the bristles of the Neveplast.
Ingels landed the project in 2011, when he won a design competition to replace a decades-old building with a new structure that could be integrated into the city — something capable of not only converting some 450,000 tons of non-recyclable waste into energy annually, but also attracting tourists and locals. Later that year, Time magazine named the concept one of the 50 best inventions of 2011.
“Amager Bakke is the embodiment of how we want to combine sustainable thinking and innovative architecture with recreational facilities when developing the city,” former Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen said in a 2019 email to the Times.
And Ingels is pretty proud himself, telling the outlet: “It’s a beacon in showing the world that clean tech presents almost utopian possibilities.”
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