international
polar
foundation

In bad weather conditions, snow can infiltrate the station, even through the tiniest gap. In order to avoid this, the team made adjustments on the main door of the garage, making it possible to use even during snow storms.

The IPF BELARE team installs a wooden frame in the station's new annexes to support a sliding door that will insulate the heated garage from the freezing temperatures outside.

Stainless steel panels are placed on the north annex of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station, December 2020. The entire station is covered in stainless steel panels for protection.

Engineer Guus Luppens connects the electric cables from the solar panels freshlin installed on the outside walls of hte new garage to the inverters, which convert the direct current the solar panels produce into an alternate current that can be used in the station.

In December 2020, Guus Luppens and Johan Demuylder install solar panels on the front side of the new garage at PEA, which had been completed in Feburary 2020.

The new set of solar panels placed on PEA's new garage in December 2020 is ready to be wired to the station's micro grid, which manages the distribution and use of the electricity produced.

The eastern side of the new garage is now protected by a layer of stainless steel plates and equipped with extra solar panels, which produce about 10% more renewable energy for the station. This will help fill energy production gaps late in the afternoon on sunny days.

Johan installs cable trays and electric cables that will be connected to the new solar panels on PEA's new garage, December 2020.

Under the station, Expedition Leader Alain Hubert is doing heavy maintenance in the crevasse where the clean, treated water from the station's water treatment unit is discharged. He uses a drill to direct the flow of discharged water through the ice.