Research in off-grid nature reserves
To the reference report
ALBATROS is a new radio astronomy experiment that consists of autonomous antenna stations operating in the Canadian high Arctic. When the experiment is fully operational, it will produce images of the sky at wavelengths that have been largely inaccessible to date.
One of the primary technical challenges for ALBATROS is the need to operate antenna stations in remote, rugged environments with large separation distances (over ten kilometres) between stations. Since the McGill Arctic Research Station is inaccessible during winter, they needed a solution that allows each antenna station to run continuously and unattended for approximately a year.
EFOY Pro fuel cells are available in various power classes, from 40 W output power for small power systems to a 500 W module for UPS solutions.
“The exact power technology that we needed”
The EFOY Pro Energy Box 4060P is the exact power technology that we needed for ALBATROS autonomous operations. The plug-and-play nature of the EFOY unit will allow us to rapidly deploy our systems and will be key to enabling our science.
H. Cynthia Chiang, associate professor of physics, McGill University
At the McGill Arctic Research Station, where solar power is unavailable during the winter and wind speeds are too low to support small-scale power generation, a methanol fuel cell was the only viable autonomous power solution. ALBATROS opted to deploy the EFOY Pro Energy Box 4060P providing an ideal solution for power autonomy under harsh Arctic winter conditions.
