Antarctica is the coldest, darkest, and windiest continent on
earth [1]. The main portion of the continent consists of ice sheets
and bare mountain that is hostile for living conditions. It is
therefore uninhabitable without energy that can be used for
heating and lighting. The continent belongs to no state or government
and is dedicated basically for research purposes. To
ensure peace and promotion of science, a treaty was draughted
thereby given liberty to any nation that wishes to establish
research stations [2]. The treaty which was signed in 1961 facilitates
a favourable cooperation between nations. The Government
of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand,
Russia, Britain, Northern Island, USA and the South African are the
twelve original signatory to the Antarctic treaty [3]. The treaty
restrains human, military or mining activities and prohibits usage
of nuclear power in any form. All in a bit to ensure Antarctica
environment is preserved. All activities regarding environment is
being supervised by specific environmental committee in order to
ensure that all agreement are kept.
A significant amount of energy is required to provide conducive
environment for working and living condition under an extreme
climatic condition like that of Antarctica. At present, most of these
energy requirements are met through the use of diesel generators.
However, the haulage of diesel involves considerable environmental
risk. It is also uneconomical as the cost of diesel at the
point of use is about three times the purchasing cost due to
transportation expenses [4]. These have motivated the use of
alternative sources such as wind and solar technology at some of
the base stations in Antarctica to reduce the cost of fuel and
environmental pollution. For example, three 330 kW wind turbine
are in use at US's McMurdo and New Zealand's Scot base stations
in Ross Island since 2010. This has reduced the diesel usage by
about 463,000 litre per annum thereby cutting down the CO2
emission by 1242 tonnes a year [5]. It is believed that renewable
energy electricity can provide the entire energy requirement of the
base stations, using diesel generator only as back-up.