The right choices, the right decisions
Posted on the 28.03.2011 by Alain Hubert
Now at the end of its second operating season, the overall assessment that we can draw from the early days of the Princess Elisabeth station is more than positive. For instance, we now know that we made the right choices for the base and the decisions taken were also the right ones.
The world was not created in a day and nor was it possible to build the Princess Elisabeth station in a single season. But the progress that can be seen as the work gradually unfolds at the base – both inside and outside – is more than promising as the seasons slowly follow one another.
A Zero-Emissions station
Of course it is not yet possible to review all of the technical elements of the base to say which have been the best and the most efficient in terms of energy-savings since PEA opened. But it is perhaps relevant to remember that first and foremost the primary objective of this project is to operate with zero emissions and to act as a model for the practices that future generations will inevitably have to adopt if we want to save planet Earth from the global warming that is beginning to give it a really rough time. And to think that when we need to produce 1000 kW/h of power, up until now we have usually only been producing 300 kW/h (based on the assumption that not everyone uses all of the energy available at the same time); at our base in the Antarctic, when 100 kW/h of power is required, our specialists manage to produce precisely that: 100 kW/h. Which represents a two-thirds saving on our energy consumption and is already a firm foundation for the sustainable development of the PEA station.
Improving the cost-effectiveness of the solar panels, producing hydrogen.
A second example is Umicore, which provides our solar panels. (Umicore is a global materials technology group. It focuses on application areas where its expertise in materials science, chemistry and metallurgy makes a real difference. Umicore’s activities focus on four business areas: Catalysis, Energy Materials, Performance Materials and Recycling). Umicore plans to replace the old photovoltaic panels during the 2012 season with more up-to-date units that are more effective. It will also be working on the cost-effectiveness of the batteries, which will no longer be produced from lead and acid, like before, but will instead be made from a new material whose components we are not yet allowed to talk about. One thing is certain, though, their capacity will rise at least from 2 to 3. Finally, the technical people at Umicore are working on the local production of hydrogen, which will make it possible to recharge vehicle batteries using a backup power fuel cell system.
Researchers like PEA
We are also very proud of the fact that 7 teams of researchers (and 12 different nationalities) have already stayed and worked at the base since it was officially opened. The season just finished hosted 14 scientists from a range of disciplines through the Belgian Antarctica Research programme (BELARE 2010-2011), as well as scientists from Japan and Germany, who used the station as a welcome base for their data collection, sample collection and research.
Highlights from the four-month season include:
• The PEA running as a zero-emissions station for the majority of the season
• The discovery of at least two rare meteorites among the 218 collected (SAMBA)
• The discovery of two new lakes (BELDIVA)
• The completion of a coastal survey never before carried out (BELISSIMA)
• The successful installation of new equipment at PEA for next year
Seven research projects returned to Antarctica this season working under the auspices of the recently formed Belgian Polar Secretariat. I spent the entire season in Antarctica managing logistics and ensuring that the scientists had everything they needed to conduct their research.
Opening a route to the plateau
Another achievement I would like to emphasise here is the fact that we have managed to open up a safe route to the plateau. It is 120 km in length and comes to an end at an altitude of 2 700 metres. We stopped at a location well known for the presence of meteorites. The Belgian team working on the meteorite research programme in conjunction with a number of Japanese scientists collected 218 different types, including a number of very rare ones. The fact that we have succeeded in opening up this route confirms the feeling I had back in 1997 as Dixie Dansercoer and I were on our way to the other end of the continent. At the time, I said to myself as we climbed the Sør Rondane mountains that there was certainly a way to get up on to the polar icecap using motorised equipment.
This also confirmed the fact that we now know that we can operate, should the need arise, in a radius of 300 kilometres - which again demonstrates the versatility of the station’s location. And while we were at it, we began building some mobile field units capable of moving about quickly and effectively. What we did was simply to place containers on sledges.
Another result was our success in treating water from the toilets so that it can be reused in the overall water circuit. The only waste we produce now is a tiny amount of sludgy biomass residue, which we will be able to have removed to South Africa every two years.
Lots of snow when we arrived ; but everything had held up well (including the wind turbines)
If I were to make any reservations at all about operating the station, it would be the fact that when we arrive in November, there is always a large quantity of snow that accumulates on the side of the garages and which we have to clear away each time with a great deal of elbow grease.
It has to be said that the satellite station we installed last year quadrupled the volume of snow that had built up this year. Which was unfortunate. But I think that all we need to do is move the solar panels to solve the problem at least partly. But, of course, Antarctica will always be the continent of winds and storms and I doubt that we will ever be able to say that we’ll find the buildings and surroundings the same as we left them from one year to the next.
Having said that, I should finish by underlining the fact that while there was a huge amount of snow this year, there were no breakages of any kind, either in our equipment or in the various systems at the base.
New for next year : an electric vehicle
We have already mentioned the fact that an inventor from Monaco named Gildo Pastor (the company he owns is called Venturi), who specialises in building electric vehicles, has let us know that the prototype he has been preparing for the past few years for the station will be delivered next season.
It is less the presence of this vehicle that is perfectly suited to polar conditions that we should stress here, than the fact that the station continues to attract powerful and inventive manufacturers who are constantly working in their factories so that we can keep thinking of ways to improve our energy-savings. In any event, the station acts as an open-air laboratory that fits in perfectly with its main aims and objectives.
Reconnaissance survey towards the Antarctic Plateau
© IPF / René Robert
