Project Details
Client name
UK Centre for Ecology
Market
Conservation & Nature
Service
Bespoke Off-Grid System Design
About this project
The UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrolog (UKCEH) has been a long-standing customer of Leading Edge Power with numerous off-grid solutions now situated across the UK.
A recent project focussed on helping understand how greenhouse gas emissions from land and water surfaces influence, and are affected by, global climate change. The instrumentation to gather this data requires siting in remote places where there is no grid-connect power and the weather conditions are often harsh.
After evaluating Leading Edge’s off-grid power systems, UKCEH decided on a bespoke off-grid solution tailored to their specific needs. Importantly, it needed to be easy to install by their scientists in the “field”.
The equipment monitors the exchange of greenhouse gases, energy and water between the land surface and the atmosphere using a mix of Eddy covariance flux towers, greenhouse gas auto-chambers and weather stations with a continuous power draw of 1 - 3 amps.
Working closely with the Leading Edge design team, various options and features were presented to UKCEH with their associated cost points, and UKCEH were able to choose the best fit for a system that met their specific requirements.
The end result consisted of a version of the OG Base Trailer. Power generation is from solar panels and depending on the location Leading Edge’s own robust wind turbines, with the resulting electricity stored in deep-cycle AGM batteries housed in IP65 enclosures.
Each system has the option of being remotely monitored via a Web interface to check how the system is performing with the ability to receive alarm signals and change system settings.
The enclosures also contain the control equipment, isolation switches, DC-to-DC conversion, fuses and low voltage disconnect.
The video below shows the solution in action powering the Eosense flux chambers.
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