First renewable energy mini electric power station

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First renewable energy mini electric power station

The environment of the Canadian Arctic is unpredictable. During Operation NANOOK2013, a transport aircraft was delayed for four days because of fog and a blizzard. The incident sparked a discussion on the issue of energy dependence.

"If this aircraft had been delivering our fuel supplies, we might have found ourselves short of fuel, meaning without our generator, without communications and without security," notes Captain Pierre Frenette of 35 Canadian Brigade Group Headquarters.

In preparation for Exercise Guerrier Nordique from 24 February to 14 March, the G6 cell of 35 Brigade decided to look for a solution to their fuel dependence. And these members of 35 Brigade managed to identify a specific solution to deployments complicated by inclement weather and by volume and weight constraints.

"So we thought of using the wind (wind energy) and the sun (solar energy) to provide us with an inexhaustible source of electricity that was free of charge, non-polluting, totally autonomous and sufficient to operate communications equipment," said Capt Frenette.

The mini electric power station was developed in consultation with companies that specialize in the field of renewable energy, through discussion forums and from targeted readings. The G6 cell calculated its daily electrical consumption to find out how much electricity would be needed to work independently for 24 hours.

Under the authority of Sgt Dominic Thomassin, construction of the station began ten days before the deployment date. The final product had two batteries capable of storing 265 amperes, four 140-watt solar panels and two windmills capable of generating 24 volts in DC.

"We also acquired a weather station to collect highly precise data on wind and solar conditions and their impact on electrical production capacity," said Capt Frenette.

Since hours of sunshine are extremely limited at certain times of the year, we had to depend on another source of energy. So the decision was made to combine wind energy and solar energy.

With that in mind, the solar panels functioned extremely well during Exercise Guerrier Nordique. They produced an average of 13 amps/hour, with a maximum of 18 amps/hour when the sun was shining. The communications systems consumed roughly 15 amps/hour.

One more advantage of the mini electric power station is that it is extremely compact and easy to transport, a major benefit when deployments are carried out by air. The idea of generating electrical current through renewable energy could prove highly interesting for the Canadian Armed Forces, which conduct a large number of military exercises and operations throughout Canada and around the world.

With this technology, the CAF would be able to conduct operations anywhere in the world, particularly in areas where the existing infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed by bad weather.

The members of the G6 cell encountered some challenges with the mini power station in Iqaluit, which enabled them to make certain improvements and boost the system's efficiency. They found out, for example, how to best place the mini station to exploit the sun's energy and learned that it's not always a good idea to have the windmills attached to the station.

The CAF is continuing to develop renewable, high-performing and non-polluting energy in order to increase our capacity to conduct operations effectively around the world.

_http://www.nationaljournal.com/library/146573