On the 100th Anniversary of Captain Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic, the Solar Panels provided by RenEnergy to British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Rothera base were switched on. At 3pm the North roof was producing 3.1kW and the South 260W.
RenEnergy designed the system and supplied the components which were shipped to the Antarctic, the panels were installed by BAS staff following training with RenEnergy at the BAS Cambridge office.
BAS currently uses a 340kW generator to meet base electrical demand so the solar panels will not produce enough electricity to affect the main base by a significant amount but any excess electricity generated will be exported to the base electrical network.
The power generated by the array will be used to offset the carbon produced by generators during winter. The carbon savings will equate to: • North Roof will save 3550kg per annum and • South Roof will save 2725kg per annum.
This was a really exciting project for RenEnergy to be involved with and we will be interested to see how the system performs in such an extreme environment. We look forward to receiving pictures of the installation in the next few days.
