POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT WIND POWER GENERATION AT ANTARCTIC STATIONS by

• Main Authors: Antoine Guichard, Peter Magill, Patrice Godon, David Lyons, Chris Brown
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.129.324; http://www.latitude.aq/public/energy/publis/scalop96.pdf

The Antarctic scientific stations are generally powered by conventional diesel boilers and generator sets which consume large amounts of fossil fuels. In addition to being difficult and expensive to ship, fuel can threaten the local environment. The potential for wind power generation is high, but few commercial wind turbines can resist the harsh local conditions. The 10 kW “UM70X/GEV7.10 ” turbine was identified as the most suitable unit currently available. Its production potential was assessed and used as a basis for analysing several configurations of wind-diesel systems at the stations. At some stations where conditions have been found to be favorable, modest investments in wind turbines would make significant contributions to the overall station energy requirements, while larger, more ambitious systems could make the stations near independent of fossil fuels. Résumé Les stations scientifiques de l’Antarctique utilisent généralement pour leurs besoins en énergie des chaudières et groupes électrogènes conventionnels qui consomment de larges quantités de combustibles fossiles. En plus d’être difficile et coûteux à acheminer, ce combustible peux menacer l’environnement local. Le potentiel de production d’énergie éolienne est élevé, mais peu d’aérogénérateurs disponibles commercialement peuvent résister aux rudes conditions locales. L’aérogénérateur de 10 kW “UM70X/GEV7.10 ” a été identifié comme l’unité