THE PRINCESS ELISABETH STATION
On February 15th 2009, Belgium inaugurated a new base in Antarctica named Princess Elisabeth in honour of the grand-daughter of King Albert II of Belgium. Under the initiative of the explorer and co-founder of the International Polar Foundation Alain Hubert, the Princess Elisabeth base was built to fully operate with renewable energies, conditions motivated by present climatologic issues. Besides the engineering challenge of building a base in Antarctica and based on solar and eolian energy, the Princess Elisabeth base will be dedicated to Science. A wide range of experiments is already scheduled such as climatologic, biology, geodetic and seismic experiments (more on science at the base here). The Princess Elisabeth base, meant to be a summer manned base, has a capacity for 15 to 20 people.
| Satellite view of Antarctica with location of research bases (red dots). A large majority of them are along the coast line. The location of Princess Elisabeth base is indicated by the large yellow dot. The base is located in the vicinity of the Sør Rondane Mountains in the Queen Maud Land, about 4000 km south of South-Africa and 200 km inland (lat=71°57’S, long=23°20’E, elev=1370m). |  |
| View to the north over the base. The Sør Rondane Mountains (non visible on this picture) are located 10 km south of the base. The base is sitting on a 700 m long, NS oriented granitic ridge. The two small nunatak at the horizon are located at 30 km (for left one) and 60 km (for the right one) away |  |
| View to the SW over the base. The 9 wind turbines, clearly visible to the left of the base are the major energy provider for the base. A 5m-wide satellite antenna next to base provides all year-round communication between Belgium and the base and remote control of the scientific instruments. |  |
| View of the entrance of the base. The base outerskin and inside ventilation and insulation originated from passing building conception, leading to a confortable inside ambiant temperature with little energy lost. In addition to the wind turbines, the base is equiped with solar panels (surface>300m2) providing supplementary energy mostly during summer season when sunlight may last 24h a day. |  |
Other information about the infrastructure of the Princess Elisabeth base
Laborelec (Electrical system)Schneider Electric (Energy management)
Vertex Antennentechnik (Satellite antenna provider)
SES-Astra Techcom (Satellite communcation system)
Singularit (Local communication network)
Proven Energy (Wind turbines supplier)
Kyocera (Photovoltaic solar panel)
Consolar (Thermal solar panel)