In October 2007 Meridian Energy, one of New Zealand’s principal electricity providers, carried out feasibility studies for the installation of wind turbines in the world’s windiest continent. The turbines would provide power to New Zealand’s Scott Base and possibly neighbouring U.S. McMurdo Station. Meridian Energy has found the proposed locations have less extreme wind speeds than some areas around Wellington, the New Zealand’s notoriously windy capital city, where wind farms have been established.
Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable parts of our planet to environmental change. And yet, paradoxically, electricity at New Zealand’s Scott Base is produced by two fossil-fuel powered generators, using 380 000 litres of aviation fuel annually. Hardly an ideal choice for sustaining the needs of scientists studying pristine natural systems and climate change impacts.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts warming of a greater magnitude in polar regions than elsewhere in the world and studies by the British Antarctic Survey show that 87 per cent of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula have retreated in the last 50 years. The dramatic break-up of the Larson B ice shelf in 2002 may be a sign of things to come. If the West Antarctic ice sheet were to melt completely, the probability of which is difficult to predict, global sea levels would rise by around 6 metres (20 feet).
In this context, New Zealand researchers have been investigating ways to decrease fossil fuel use and reduce energy costs through renewable energy generation at Scott Base. Although CO2 emissions from Antarctica are negligible on a global scale, human impact in some areas is a cause for concern. A high proportion of Antarctica’s limited ice-free land is currently used for research stations, making these fragile ecosystems particularly vulnerable.
Furthermore, reliance on fuel imports means icebreakers are needed at times to cut through the frozen Ross Sea in order to bring fuel to the Base. Meridian Energy’s proposal would reduce the need for such fuel-intensive activities. Wind power in Antarctica makes more economic sense for New Zealand’s Scott Base due to the high costs of transporting fuel across the great Southern Ocean.
Engineering staff and students at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch have focused on Antarctic renewable energy research (pdf). Renewable energy systems for Cape Bird and Bratina Island have been developed and energy modelling on the use of solar Photo Voltaic (PV) panels has been undertaken (pdf).
University of Canterbury mechanical engineering student Jake Frye won a 2006 MacDiarmid Award for his Masters paper Sustainability on the Ice (pdf) in which he investigated the potential for wind power at Scott Base. He highlighted the need to reduce electricity demand at times of lower wind power supply in order to make the most efficient use of the resource. This would mean for example, doing the laundry at times of high wind energy production, whereas essentials like heating would always be backed up by fossil fuel generators.
Meanwhile other countries are also developing renewable energy systems for their research bases. Trans-Tasman counterpart Australia has installed a wind turbine at Mawson Base and Belgium has built a fully renewable-energy power station. A feasibility study of wind power at McMurdo Station done by the U.S.’s National Science Foundation four years ago found that 1.2 million litres of fuel could be saved each year. New Zealand’s proposal could feed into the two countries’ joint logistics pool while contributing some relief from fuel dependence.
Renewable energy is but one of the many interesting areas of research during a period of heightened scientific effort for the current International Polar Year. Other Antarctic projects include biodiversity surveys and rock and sediment core analysis of past environmental changes.
Conventional living is an impossibility in the icy natural laboratory we call Antarctica. It is a place uninhabitable by humans without modern technologies. For this reason it is important that scientists explore new ways in which human impacts can be reduced, and it's only natural that this should generate commercial interest.
Image credit: Cheers Flickr/elisfanclub!
