E-Base camp: E for Education
Education-Base Camp project
Robert Swan has built an education station in Antarctica, a place from which the world will be able to electronically experience the beauty of this incredible continent. In last year's expedition the E-base went live and Robert and a small team, including two RWE npower members, lived at the E-base for two weeks powered by renewable energy only.
The E-Base is housed in two buildings on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. One structure contains observation, education and communication equipment and materials, and another building close by is used to accommodate visiting students and environmentalists.
The E-Base camp is intended to help educate young people about the importance of preserving Antarctica, and raise awareness of global environmental issues. It was completed in 2007 and is now equipped and staffed. Learning resources developed in Antarctica will subsequently be used as part of the Brighter Futures education programme.
RWE employees at the E-Base
The two RWE experts, Justin Hyde and Stuart Quinton-Tulloch, headed towards the E-Base with Russell Oliver from RWE npower and two 2041 expedition leaders in February 2009. Right in the middle of the coldest region on earth, they assembled and erected two micro wind turbines provided by RWE Innogy. These turbines power the e-base 24-7, 365 days a year.
The RWE employees had to undergo a strict selection procedure before they embarked on the project. The technical know-how and skills that they required for working on the wind turbines were as important as their motivation and fitness.
The small group reported on their progress in setting up the turbines in a daily blog .
E-Base Blog
Thu, 19 Mar 2009
Signing off from the E-Base team
Music thanks to Audio Network
The ship has arrived and the E-Base team are boarding and leaving King George Island. It’s been an amazing and emotional 10 days and we hope that you’ve enjoyed following the expedition. Please adjust your sets as we join the IAE 2009 expedition.
Wed, 18 Mar 2009
Making connections
Music thanks to Audio Network
Tue, 17 Mar 2009
Antarctic Legend
Music thanks to Audio Network
Tue, 17 Mar 2009
Coping with expedition life
Any time away from home can be tough. This is now well into our third week away from home for all of the E-Base team. I know that homesickness can be difficult for people and having spent a miserable week away at cub camp at the age of 7, I have bad memories of being away from home.
Everyone in the team here is amazing, each bringing their own personality and fun to the mix. Without them I could be back to my cub camp feelings again! The work we are doing doesn’t allow you to stop to think about life outside Antarctica for 5 minutes. So although I’m sure we all miss home, we are keeping ourselves very entertained in our work. I also personally want to thank my wonderful Jacqui and my great family for all their support. Without that I probably wouldn’t be here now.
Mon, 16 Mar 2009
Our long distance runners
Music thanks to Audio Network
Mon, 16 Mar 2009
Social whirl at the E-Base
Lunch with the Uruguayans yesterday and this evening Alejo came round for tea, as Russell would say, so the evening meal rather than the hot drink. Alejo Contreras has supported 2041 for many years and is an Antarctic legend in his own right.
Stuart asked whether Alejo had been to the South Pole. ‘Yes, yes, seventeen times. Once was by walking, twice by skidoo and the rest was flying,’ was the casual reply.
He regaled us with tales of life in Antarctica, dropping into conversation such snippets as climbing Mount Vinson with Reinhold Messner, having a cup of tea with Prince Andrew and how to survive an avalanche.
Jonny has been filming interviews with him over the past couple of days and we will be putting up a video later this week. ‘There’s enough here for a full documentary,’ was Jonny’s first comment, reviewing the tapes this evening. Let’s hope someone commissions one soon!
Sun, 15 Mar 2009
Rising sea levels
Music thanks to Audio Network
Another video that the E-Base team have created as part of the E-Base Live 365 expedition. The video complements the 2041 Journey to Antarctica Curriculum (see Lesson 3: Rising Tides of the curriculum for further resources).
You can try the experiment at home or at school. How do you think that melting ice in the Antarctic and the Arctic will affect people around the world?
If you have any questions that you would like the team to answer whilst they are in Antarctica, please post them on the Message Wall. We can’t promise to answer all of them, but we’ll do our best!
Sun, 15 Mar 2009
Visiting the neighbours
It’s the weekend and a beautiful sunny day. The wind has been up and the turbines have been churning out up to 750W each - an amazing amount of power. But something seemed wrong with Kelly. There was no power coming through.
We had to wait for a lull in the wind. No one wanted to take down a wind turbine in full flow. The wind dropped and the team rushed out, bringing Kelly down and taking the head off to find out what was wrong. There seems to have been a small problem with friction between two of the plates, with the cable ties rubbing off, allowing some of the wiring to come loose and shorting the circuit.
Sat, 14 Mar 2009
Keeping warm
Music thanks to Audio Network
Another video that the E-Base team have created as part of the E-Base Live 365 expedition. The video complements the 2041 Journey to Antarctica Curriculum (see Lesson 3: Rising Tides of the curriculum for further resources).
You can try the experiment at home or at school. How do you think that melting ice in the Antarctic and the Arctic will affect people around the world?
If you have any questions that you would like the team to answer whilst they are in Antarctica, please post them on the Message Wall. We can’t promise to answer all of them, but we’ll do our best!
Sat, 14 Mar 2009
Making a window on Antarctica
It’s only been a few days that we have been here and already we have slipped into routines. A wonderful breakfast of porridge with tinned fruit cocktail or yesterday’s special of chocolate porridge and pears starts the day off. Then it is off for the day’s work.
Now that we have a sustainable (fingers crossed) source of clean energy, our next challenge is to wire up the weather station and webcam, so that we can broadcast live video and weather data to the 2041 website 365 days a year.
Education has been a big focus for the team this year, whether it’s been Russ with his handy tips on energy conservation or Justin chatting up penguins or manfully stripping down to his thermals on a glacier, just so pupils can gain an insight into some of the lessons we can learn from this amazing continent.
If we can get the weather station and webcam hooked up to the internet, it will mean that there is a source of education about the Antarctic climate available year round. There won’t be the Iwo Jima heroics of getting the first turbine up this year, but there will definitely be cheers around the E-Base if we can provide a window on this amazing place.
