Energy efficiency in Antarctica
Energy efficiency in Antarctica presents a unique challenge and opportunity due to the continent's extreme conditions. With a predominantly icy landscape and temperatures often plummeting to as low as -50 degrees Celsius, the deployment of renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar, is crucial for sustainable operations. Notably, wind energy has been effectively harnessed at various research stations, such as Australia’s Mawson Station, which has benefitted from wind turbines since 2017. Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth station operates entirely on renewable energy, showcasing the potential for zero-emission energy systems in this harsh environment.
Research stations, which accommodate thousands of seasonal inhabitants and a smaller number of year-round staff, rely on innovative energy solutions to reduce dependence on transported fuels, decreasing both costs and environmental impact. Challenges such as heavy snow accumulation and extreme cold necessitate advanced engineering solutions, including low-power instrumentation for scientific research. Cost-benefit analyses indicate that investments in renewable infrastructure can yield significant long-term savings, as seen in various projects across the continent.
The success of these initiatives in Antarctica raises the possibility of implementing similar renewable energy strategies in less extreme climates, suggesting that advancements in energy efficiency can be adapted globally. Given Antarctica’s status as a natural reserve dedicated to science and peace, these efforts not only support research but also contribute to a broader understanding of sustainable energy practices.
Energy efficiency in Antarctica
Summary: Antarctica is the coldest, darkest, and least populated of the seven continents. If energy efficiency and renewable energy can be deployed widely here, it is hoped that they can be deployed on more populated and less isolated continents.
Covering 8.6 million square miles (13.8 million square kilometers), Antarctica has a surface area of land 50 percent larger than that of the United States of America. More than 99 percent of this land is covered by glacial ice, which can be up to 13,123-feet thick (4,000-meters thick). High on the inland plateau, mean annual temperature is minus 50 degrees Celsius, and Vostok Station on the Antarctic plateau boasts the lowest recorded temperature in nature on Earth, a sobering -89.2 degrees Celsius.
Despite its remoteness and harshness, however, humans have visited Antarctica since the late 1700s, first as explorers and then as fishers, sealers, whalers, scientists, and tourists. Because there are no Indigenous people, the most permanent human presence comes from 75 active research stations that provide maximum simultaneous accommodation capacity for approximately 4,000 people in the summer. During that season, the tourism industry brings an additional 104,798 people (including paying passengers, crew, and staff during the 2022–23 season), the majority of whom travel to Antarctica on cruise ships. In winter, 38 stations operate, providing space for about 1,000 people.
System
Antarctica is governed by 28 countries under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). According to the ATS, Antarctica is designated as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science,” where military activities, nuclear explosions, disposal of radioactive waste, and mining are strictly prohibited. As a result of its unique natural features, geographical location, and relatively undisturbed natural environment, Antarctica has been seen as an ideal laboratory for understanding natural processes, many of which have global implications. Astronomy, biology, geology, glaciology, climatology, and many other disciplines are studied in Antarctica.
Wind Energy as the Leading Renewable Energy Source
Wind energy has historically been the renewable energy exploited on the largest scale in Antarctica. One wind turbine of 300 kilowatts have been able to provide much of the energy needs of Australia’s Mawson Station since 2017 when a second turbine failed and was put out of us. Belgium's Princess Elisabeth research station, which went into service in 2009, is the first Antarctic station to derive 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, using a solar array and nine wind turbines. In 2010, a wind farm opened on Ross Island, designed eventually to provide 100 percent of the energy of New Zealand’s Scott Base and meeting part of the power requirements of the United States’ McMurdo Station. In 2015, Italy began construction on a wind farm to supply energy to its Marco Zucchelli base. Antarctica offers favorable environmental conditions for the generation of energy from wind; it has year-round strong winds, off-the-shelf wind units that can easily be adapted to the special technical conditions in Antarctica, and a readily available, highly educated workforce with a sufficient background in science and engineering is stationed there. However, technical challenges still need to be overcome in order to meet Antarctic conditions, including the continent’s extreme cold, fierce winds, and accumulation of snow.
Field Camps and Instrumentation
Increasingly, small wind turbines and solar panels are being introduced in Antarctica to provide power at field camps for computers, data collectors, cameras, radios, and other instruments. These portable and flexible systems reduce the significant costs related to transporting fuel by helicopters and planes, making it possible to maintain a silent and low-atmospheric-emissions environment at field sites. Power systems based on solar panels and sometimes small wind turbines help instruments to collect data continuously and to connect to satellites for remote access and data transfer. Instruments that use renewable energy have made it possible to vastly expand both temporal and spatial sampling and monitoring.
For renewable energy to be effective for instrumentation, the power consumption of the instruments must be lowered. The low-power magnetometer, a precision instrument that measures the Earth’s magnetic field in three dimensions, has been designed to have a power requirement of only 0.5 watt. The low-power magnetometer uses solar power over the summer, storing excess power in batteries. Four sets of 100 ampere-hour lead-acid batteries tide the magnetometer over during the winter. A network of these magnetometers has been deployed far inland on the Antarctic continent, where it can be dark up to five months each year; each low-power magnetometer can function with full independence for more than 400 days without interruption.
Energy Costs and Benefits
Despite the fact that there are methodological differences and uncertainties, economic cost-benefit analyses can be useful in providing an indication of the costs and benefits of introducing energy efficiency and renewable energy in Antarctica. However, in Antarctica as elsewhere, the results of such analyses should be treated with care and considered only as indicators of a complex reality. Results from cost-benefit analyses are often subject to change because of fluctuating variables, such as fluctuating fuel prices, changing costs for transporting fuel, and rising installation costs. Therefore, conservative estimates are often employed. Moreover, it is important to remember that cost-benefit analyses rarely take into account hard-to-monetize external cost savings, such as reduced risk of oil spill in transport and storage, reduced atmospheric emissions, or hidden savings such as reduced annual transport, storage, and maintenance costs.
Despite the shortcomings of economic cost-benefit analyses, the following information provides an indication of some of the costs and benefits of renewable energy systems in Antarctica. For example, the wind farm project at Mawson Station cost approximately $8 to $9 million (Australian). The three wind turbines accounted for only 25 percent of the total project cost. Creating the foundation and infrastructure, purchasing plant and equipment, and transportation costs took up the lion’s share of the rest of the project’s cost. The undiscounted simple payback period is estimated to be between 5 and 12 years, depending on assumptions made on the cost of fuel landed and stored in Antarctica. Since its commissioning, the wind farm has provided an average annual fuel saving of around 32 percent, equivalent to a saving of 2,918 tons of carbon dioxide during the first six years of operation.
The hypothetical installation of nine 100-kilowatt wind turbines at South Pole Station is estimated to cost approximately $4.3 million and would result in potential net savings of almost $18 million over a 20-year project life. Annual fuel consumption would be reduced by almost 23 percent, or 440,783 liters. In similar fashion, the possible installation of wind turbines of approximately 1 megawatt at McMurdo is estimated to cost $2 to $3 million. Total fuel consumption would potentially be reduced by between 600,000 and 1,200,000 liters per year, resulting in a net saving of between $1 million and $4 million over the 20-year project life (assuming a simple undiscounted payback rate).
In 2023, it was announced that three new wind turbines were planned for construction on Ross Island. The turbines would power stations belonging to the United States and New Zealand. Additionally, the United States and New Zealand intended to replace three existing wind turbines, upgrade the region's high voltage network, replace the diesel generators at Scott Base, and replace the existing flywheel storage system with a battery storage system.
Lessons to Be Drawn
Advanced energy management controls, robust energy efficiency measures, encouragement of behavioral change, low-energy instrumentation, improved insulation, innovative snow removal techniques, and cogeneration have contributed to a reduction in energy demands in Antarctica’s research and field stations. Years of successful operation at these facilities demonstrate that even in one of the world’s most difficult environments, well-designed and well-engineered energy efficiency programs can make a substantial contribution to reducing energy use, displacing imports, reducing costs, and minimizing environmental damage. Indeed, harsh environmental conditions and technological barriers do not have to limit the deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy. If renewable energy can be deployed widely on the coldest, darkest, and remotest continent of the world, the use of renewables in more populated and less isolated continents should be easily realized and widely disseminated.
Bibliography
"A 'Zero Emission' Station?" Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, www.antarcticstation.org/station/. Accessed 30 July 2024.
Baring-Gould, I., R. Robichaud, and K. McLain. “Analysis of the Use of Wind Energy to Supplement the Power Needs at McMurdo Station and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica.” NREL/TP-500-37504, 2005.
Godon, P., and A. Pierre. Power System for the Continuous and Efficient Operation of the New Concordia Station. Translated and adapted by Antoine G. Plouzané. French Polar Institute, 2000.
Lewis, Michelle. "Wind Turbines Are Headed to Antarctica - Here's How That Works." Electrek, 14 Apr. 2023, electrek.co/2023/04/14/wind-turbines-antarctica/. Accesed 30 July 2024.