Princess Elisabeth Research Station at Antarctica

Princess Elisabeth Research Station at Antarctica: Renewable Energy Systems design, simulation and optimization

Van Rattinghe, K.

van Bussel, G.J.W. (mentor)
Kelder, E.M. (mentor)
Gibescu, M. (mentor)
De Coninck, R. (mentor)
De Broe, A. (mentor)

Aerospace Engineering

2008-01-14

The Earth’s climate is changing. A better understanding on the climate mechanism is essential for future sustainable development. As Antarctica has an important role in the Earth system, a new Belgian research station - named Princess Elisabeth - is currently under construction in the Sør Rondane mountains (Droning Maud Land, East Antarctica). The Princess Elisabeth station is unique in its conception. It is only manned during the austral summer, but remains operational for full year monitoring. In addition, it aims at minimum environmental impact and the highest energy and waste efficiency, fundamental issues in the Antarctic Environmental Protocol. The objective of the energy concept is a 95% sustainable hybrid system consisting of solar and wind power, combined with electrical and thermal storage. A diesel system is mainly foreseen as back-up in emergency situations. This research investigates the feasibility of the energy concept and the component sizing of the hybrid system. In addition the sensitivity of the design is evaluated on the wind variation as wind power generates most of the energy. For this purpose, a synthetic wind series is created (first order Markov chain) and combined with long term observations of other polar stations. Finally, the current design is evaluated under the assumption the station is permanently manned. A dynamical simulation tool is developed to validate the design decisions. The hybrid system consists of 6 small wind turbines of 6 kW each, a 50 kWp photovoltaic system, a 6000 Ah battery bank (VRLA) and 2 back-up diesel generators of 35 kW each. For the thermal applications, 21 m2 flat solar thermal collectors and 1.5 m3 heat storage is foreseen. To keep the station up and running under normal conditions, the annual diesel consumption ranges between 1750 and 1250 litres, depending on the wind climate. 97% of the energy originates from renewable sources, which makes the Princess Elisabeth station the most environmental friendly manned polar station. The design is a benchmark for future polar stations. If the station is permanently manned, annual diesel consumption ranges from 17000 to 14000 litres. The renewable energy fraction is reduced to approximately 72%. Sensitivity analysis showed further diesel reduction is possible by adding wind turbines and electrical storage capacity; however the marginal gain is limited. Significant reduction on the loads is needed to achieve the low emission objective. Specific attention is needed on the generator selection and battery control algorithm if the station is manned permanently.

Windenergy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3516ba15-eebd-4e9d-84d1-b1f067a60d1a

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2008 K. Van Rattinghe