Autonomous field station in the Arctic
To the reference report
The Lower Saxony State Agency for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN) is a Lower Saxony state agency that is part of the portfolio of the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection. Every day, the NLWKN collects data from thousands of measurements and investigations and provides important bases for decision-making. The NLWKN’s core tasks include island, coastal and flood protection, as well as the planning and construction of water management facilities and water bodies. In addition to regional nature conservation, it is also responsible for the operation of gauging stations on flowing waters.
In order to continuously measure the current water level of some water bodies in the region and to make the data available to the public on the Internet, the NLWKN has installed water level gauges. Since some of these gauging stations are located in remote places, a connection to the local power grid is often not feasible due to the high costs of the grid operators. Batteries and solar panels cannot provide sufficient power, especially during the winter months. For this reason, the NLWKN has been looking for an alternative energy solution.
“The EFOY Pro fuel cell provided us with an off-grid, fast and uncomplicated solution.”
The EFOY Pro fuel cell provided us with an off-grid, fast and uncomplicated solution. Connecting to the stationary power grid would not only have taken a lot of time, but would also have been very costly.
Ralph-Ludwig Gehrke, NLWKN
The EFOY Pro 900, the latest fuel cell generation, is the ideal power supply solution for this application.
The NWLKN uses the environmentally friendly EFOY Pro 800 Duo (equivalent to the latest fuel cell generation EFOY Pro 900), integrated into a control cabinet, in hybrid operation with solar. This installation enables a continuous and reliable off-grid power supply for the level measurement system, all year round. Fail-safe operation of the system is particularly important, as failures can lead to data gaps and affect the accuracy of the measurements.
The EFOY Pro ensures a reliable and off-grid power supply for the level measurement system. Especially during the winter months, it reliably supplies the system with electricity when solar power is no longer sufficient. By integrating the EFOY Pro into a control cabinet, the fuel cell is protected from the weather as well as other external factors. The data collected by the gauge systems is transmitted to the Internet in real time and is available to the public free of charge via the "My Gauges" app (a service provided by www.hochwasserzentralen.de). This ensures that the public is always informed about the condition of the water bodies and can act more quickly in the event of flooding.
