News Article
RenEnergy Supplies PV To Icy Destination
Norfolk company supplies solar panels to the coldest place on earth
RenEnergy, Norfolk's leading full-service renewable energy provider, are supplying British Antarctic Survey (BAS) with two solar panel systems, which will be installed on a new research building between December 2011 and March 2012, at their main Antarctic base Rothera.
The solar panels will be installed on both sides of the roofs; north and south, and once complete the energy generated from the panels will offset emissions from the main generators.
Damian Baker, Managing Director for RenEnergy, comments: "It has been a privilege to supply British Antarctic Survey with solar panel systems and to provide advice on how to improve their energy efficiency. It is great to see BAS thinking about their carbon footprint and looking to invest in becoming more energy efficient. We wish them all the luck for their research projects."
Differing from the UK where solar panels are usually installed on south facing roofs, the Antarctic experiences 24-hour sunlight in the summer months allowing BAS to generate energy for the research centre by installing solar panel systems on each sides of the roof.
British Antarctic Survey has already installed various technologies including cavity wall installation, LED lighting, and inverter driven pumps to improve their energy efficiency in one of the coldest environments in the world.
The photovoltaic arrays are part of a new Dutch science facility being built at Rothera. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research are financing the project and will use the new building, which is being used for containerised laboratories where scientific experiments will be conducted.
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 carbon savings will equate to:
"¢ North Roof will save 3550kg per annum and
"¢ South Roof will save 2725kg per annum.