Hydrogen to be produced from wind turbine at South Pole
MAWSON, Antarctica, 2004-11-24 Refocus Weekly
The Australian Greenhouse Office will fund Aus$500,000 to demonstrate the use of hydrogen generated by wind in Antarctica.
The demonstration project at the Australian Antarctic Division’s station at
Mawson will research the safety and operational aspects of using hydrogen, as
well as its viability as an energy carrier. Hydrogen will be produced using
electricity from the Mawson wind turbines, and then stored and used in a fuel
cell for both space heating and transportation in one of the station vehicles.
The test fuel cell and heater will be installed at the field camp on Bechervaise
Island, to provide electricity and heat for scientists involved in the penguin
monitoring program. By the completion of the project, officials expect to have
sufficient information to model the large-scale use of hydrogen to supplement
energy requirements.
The system will be installed and implemented during the 2005-06 season.
Hydrogen will be used when the wind energy is insufficient to power the station,
and may fuel an internal combustion engine generator.
“The ultimate aim is to be able to run the station and all the field camps
without the use of any fossil fuels,” say officials at the site. “We believe
this may be the first attempt to use hydrogen as a major energy source in
Antarctica.”
Two wind turbines were commissioned at Mawson in June, following successful
field trials of a 10 kW turbine at Casey. Installation of the Enercon turbines
started in 2002 and the 1 MW of units must handle winds in excess of 250 km/h.
By 2007, AAD hopes to have a “large proportion” of the power requirements of
all its continental stations provided by renewables. Plans to generate green
power on Macquarie Island are on hold, pending further investigations.
AAD also uses solar PV during the 24 hours of daylight during summer, to power
automatic weather stations and VHF communications repeaters. A project launched
in 1999 to use solar thermal for heating water at Davis has also proved very
successful, and supplies 100% of DHW for personal and laundry use during the
summer. Solar collectors will be installed in all new living quarters and summer
accommodation blocks planned for Davis.
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