Where our energy comes from

Everything at South Pole is powered with jet fuel. Every plane that comes in from McMurdo carries a full tank of fuel. When the planes land here, the "fuelies" go out and take out all the fuel from the planes leaving just enough for the plane to fly back with. The fuel then goes to the power plant, to power the station and other experimental buildings nearby.

They take energy efficiency very seriously here. They track where all the electricity goes, and occasionally, we get a station-wide announcement over the loud-speaker that we should turn off all unnecessary lights and computers.

It takes a lot of energy to produce water and we are requested to keep our showers to 2 minutes of water usage and 2 showers per week. If you do really sweaty work (drilling, cooking, etc) you can take more. I was a bit worried about this before getting here, but it's
not too bad. It is so dry here it you really don't notice it, and if you turn the water off to lather up 2 minutes is a fairly long time. It also helps that everyone is in the same boat. Still, I'm looking forward to a long bath when I'm back.

I was told they hope to replace the Jamesway summer camps with a super-energy efficient, off-the-grid camp. The South Pole Station can sleep about 150 people and during the summer, about 100 people sleep in the summer camp, in Jamesway tents. Jamesways are modified tents much like what they used during... the Korean war? They are well insulated and heated inside, but there is a big gradient in the temperature inside and very energy inefficient: you can keep your soda
cold on the floor but sleep comfortably in a bed. You have to run outside to another Jamesway to go to the bathroom. The new summer camp would be totally off the grid and the hope is to find solar panels that will work at these temperatures. With 24 hours of sunlight, it should be great! They have tried turbines (wind power) but the ones they tried didn't work at all: the wings never turned.