Wind power has long been touted as a climate solution due to the emissions-free energy it provides. But now, a German scientist thinks it could also be used to save some of the world’s most rapidly vanishing glaciers.

The proposal is to place giant windscreens along the route of so-called kabatic winds; downdrafts of cold air that run down from the high Alpine glaciers. These screens would interrupt the drafts, causing them to swirl longer over the slowly-moving ice rivers, keeping air temps down over the glaciers and ice loss to a minimum. 

The project, though, the brain-child of German global warming celebrity Hans-Joachim Fuchs, has not been met with much support from the scientific community. Other scientists tend to dismiss the effectiveness of the idea, saying light-reflecting glacial covers—an expensive solution only in use at certain ski areas—are the only proven glacier-saving measure. 

In the spirit of empirical science, a test windscreen has been set up at a Swiss glacier, nonetheless. Data collected will reveal whether Fuch’s plan has serious chance to save vanishing glaciers would wide, or is simply full of hot air.