EESS Student talk on "Towards and Antarctic Wind Atlas: Wind Energy Assessment at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station"
Event details
| Date | 20.05.2025 |
| Hour | 12:45 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Brandon van Schaik, PhD Student, CRYOS |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
In January and February 2024, Brandon performed a wind energy assessment study at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station, located just North of the East Antarctic Sør Rondane mountains. The Princess Elisabeth Station is unique in Antarctica as it is the only station to date that operates completely on renewable energy. This zero-emission Antarctic station operates only during the Austral summer period, powered solely by nine 6kW wind turbines and about 140m² of solar PV and thermal panels, combined with a 286 kWh Lead-acid battery. After the successful completion of the field campaign, Brandon reached out to several national Antarctic research programmes that operate wind turbines in Antarctica to promote the exploitation of wind energy on the continent and the internal sharing of their wind turbine data, with which he is currently developing an Antarctic Wind Atlas to create an easily accessible and realistic measure for potential energy generation of new wind turbines at all Antarctic bases.
Biography:
Brandon van Schaik is a third-year PhD student at the Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences at EPFL Valais/Wallis ALPOLE in Sion. He received his BSc. in Applied Physics and MSc. in Sustainable Energy Technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He has worked on several projects studying the atmosphere in the high-Arctic at the University Centre in Svalbard. Currently, he primarily studies the interactions between the complex mountain topography and the wind, and their effects on wind turbines in the Swiss Alps on a European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program grant EPFLglobaLeaders as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow. In 2023, he was awarded a Swiss Polar Institute Polar Access Fund grant to perform a wind energy assessment campaign at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station in early 2024.
In January and February 2024, Brandon performed a wind energy assessment study at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station, located just North of the East Antarctic Sør Rondane mountains. The Princess Elisabeth Station is unique in Antarctica as it is the only station to date that operates completely on renewable energy. This zero-emission Antarctic station operates only during the Austral summer period, powered solely by nine 6kW wind turbines and about 140m² of solar PV and thermal panels, combined with a 286 kWh Lead-acid battery. After the successful completion of the field campaign, Brandon reached out to several national Antarctic research programmes that operate wind turbines in Antarctica to promote the exploitation of wind energy on the continent and the internal sharing of their wind turbine data, with which he is currently developing an Antarctic Wind Atlas to create an easily accessible and realistic measure for potential energy generation of new wind turbines at all Antarctic bases.
Biography:
Brandon van Schaik is a third-year PhD student at the Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences at EPFL Valais/Wallis ALPOLE in Sion. He received his BSc. in Applied Physics and MSc. in Sustainable Energy Technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. He has worked on several projects studying the atmosphere in the high-Arctic at the University Centre in Svalbard. Currently, he primarily studies the interactions between the complex mountain topography and the wind, and their effects on wind turbines in the Swiss Alps on a European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program grant EPFLglobaLeaders as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow. In 2023, he was awarded a Swiss Polar Institute Polar Access Fund grant to perform a wind energy assessment campaign at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station in early 2024.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Michael Lehning, CRYOS