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Princess Elisabeth Station, Antarctica | Overview
Idea

Idea

© René Robert / International Polar Foundation
The station, designed according to a "zero emission" concept, integrates passive building design with renewable energy sources run through a smart grid with a programmable logic circuit (PLC) to manage the use of energy in the station. Any excess energy is stored in batteries located inside the central core of the station, a configuration that ensures optimal resource consumption.

© René Robert / International Polar Foundation

Whenever someone wants to plug something in, he or she must first push a button to ask the PLC whether there is energy available. Different modes feature different priority levels for energy use in the station, with essential functions such as ventilation and the bioreactor receiving high priority, bathroom and kitchen appliances receiving medium priority and outlets used to connect additional non-essential items receiving low priority. If there is energy available, the PLC diverts requested energy to the outlet.

Such an environmentally-friendly station is the fruit of the designers' meticulous study of how occupants would live in and around the station. The main structure of the station consists in concentric layers surrounding a central technical core, which holds the water treatment units, ventilation and control systems, and batteries for energy storage. Around this core are three concentric layers: the station’s active systems (kitchen and laundry rooms), the external areas (living and sleeping rooms), and the heavily insulated, multi-layered outer walls of the station.

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