Antarctica

The first Czech research station on the white continent was built from K-KONTROL^® System

The company Czech Pan s.r.o. was one of the suppliers for the construction of the first Czech research base in the Antarctica. The assembly took place on James Ross Island and was supervised by our experts Josef Strolený and Stanislav Havránek. The building of a size of 26 x 10.5 meters was built from K-KONTROL sandwich panels. The Czech polar base is situated in a locality where temperatures fluctuate between -10 and +10 °C during antarctic summer.

The station will be out of operation for the rest of the year. In winter, Antarctica is buried in almost continual darkness so the only possible research is astrophysical research. But this kind of research required equipment for tens or hundreds million crowns and so it is still not possible for financial reasons.

The group of fifteen polar scientists can live rather comfortably in the somewhat constrained interior of the main building.

The research station is constructed to meet the strictest ecological regulations. Unlike other international stations that have been present in Antarctica for tens of years, the Czech research station will produce electricity for heating and lighting mainly from sun and wind. Solar collectors attached to the walls of the main building and small, almost noiseless wind-power plants in the vicinity are capable of producing 75 percent of energy. It is not until these clean sources fall short due to low intensity of light or weak wind that a motor aggregate is started to produce electricity. In order to avoid the annoying noise the aggregate is placed in a soundproof container.

The total construction cost of the research station is 43 million Czech crowns. The living area has an operating life of 30 years. The building is made of materials that have a service life of more than 80 years under normal maintenance.

author: Tomáš Franta