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At an altitude of 2,621 meters, with an average annual temperature of minus 36.6 degrees Celsius, the Antarctic Taishan Station has long suffered from a lack of electricity supply due to the harsh environment. However, this history will soon come to an end. On October 15, the unattended power supply system \"Dongda Jieneng\", developed by Southeast University specifically for Taishan Station, was sent to Shanghai to participate in China’s 36th Antarctic research expedition. It will set off for Antarctica on October 22 aboard the ship Xue Long. This set of \"giant power banks\" can withstand the extreme cold of minus 80 to 90 degrees Celsius in Antarctic winters, providing continuous power to polar research equipment for 1 year at a time; it supplies power to the equipment at the Taishan Station, and enables remote monitoring of the operation of that station via satellite. This is also China’s first domestically developed, unattended polar energy system to be put into operation. It can provide power continuously for 24 hours a day, for up to 1 year. Developed by Southeast University, this \"giant power bank\" resembles two containers: one is the control compartment and the other is the power generation compartment. Inside the power generation compartment, there are 6 sets of generator units. The energy used for power generation comes from either solar power or fuel; 5 tons of aviation fuel are available as a backup in cases when solar energy reserves are insufficient. Wei Haikun, executive dean of the School of Automation at Southeast University, explained: “The total power consumption of the scientific research equipment at Mount Tai Station is about 2.5 kilowatts, while the maximum output power of this portable power supply can reach 3 kilowatts.” At present, it can operate for 1 year, generating electricity continuously for 24 hours straight. ” In Antarctica, where thermal energy is scarce, every degree of temperature must be utilized to the fullest extent. Wei Haikun explained that fuel freezes at temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius, and through clever design, they use the heat generated by generator sets to keep the fuel warm. At the same time, Wei Haikun’s team uses Iridium communications to conduct remote, real-time monitoring of the energy modules. From time to time, they will transmit various monitoring data from the site, such as the environmental temperatures inside and outside the cabin as well as the temperatures of the equipment, and will check whether the output power of the generator set is normal. The 4 cameras will also send images of the equipment in operation from time to time. Taishan Station is constantly exposed to low temperatures and low air pressure. As it is unattended, any malfunction in the equipment can put the power supply at Taishan Station at serious risk. To this end, Wei Haikun’s team has provided a \"backup\" for each of the core modules in the equipment; there are 5 backups for the generator sets, and 1 backup for the communication system. \"If the current generator set fails, the system can automatically switch to the backup unit.\" The temperature inside the cabin can be controlled at 30 degrees Celsius. Taishan Station in Antarctica is a research station operated by China located in the interior of the Antarctic continent. Due to the extreme cold climate, researchers can only go to Mount Tai Station for about a month each year during the summer, carrying conventional generators, which makes the work inefficient and unsustainable. “How to generate electricity in a stable and reliable manner has always been a technical challenge in Antarctic research. ”Wei Haikun has been involved in Antarctic research since 2010. He said that the power generation equipment at China’s Kunlun Station in Antarctica is currently supplied by foreign parties, but there have been many accidents. Once, the exhaust pipe of the generator set leaked oil, causing thick smoke to fill the power generation compartment; the temperature inside the compartment rose rapidly, and the system failed. Another time, the diesel generator set ran out of fuel, the generator spun idle, and eventually the unit was damaged by fire. “More importantly, this power generation equipment is under foreign control; if they shut down the system, our scientific research will be at their mercy. ” The average winter temperature at Taishan Station is around minus 60 degrees Celsius. The best core components for power generation control systems can only withstand temperatures of around minus 40 degrees Celsius. As a result, keeping these power supply devices warm in order to ensure they can provide a stable power supply has posed a great challenge for researchers. “We installed heaters on the cold-sensitive generator set equipment, including the batteries. ”Wei Haikun said that the polyurethane foam material used in the cabin has different thicknesses in various areas; the bottom of the cabin, which is in contact with ice and snow, is thicker, while the ceiling is thinner. When power generation equipment is in operation, without an appropriate control scheme, the temperature inside the generation compartment rises rapidly, reaching over 70 degrees Celsius in some areas. This means a temperature difference of around 150 degrees Celsius compared to the outside temperature, and the equipment needs to operate within a \"comfortable\" temperature range to function stably. Wei Haikun explained that they use two technologies to regulate the temperature of the power generation compartment and the control compartment. First, they used data modeling to design the layout of the cabin, installing ventilation openings, smoke exhaust outlets, air inlets, and exhaust fans to enable the equipment to \"breathe\" properly” ； At the same time, they installed 10 sensors inside the cabin to monitor the temperature in different areas in real time, enabling remote control. When considering heat dissipation, researchers adopted two approaches to ensure that if some devices stop working when there is no one around, other devices can take over their functions. For example, when the temperature inside the compartment is high, the system will remotely activate exhaust fans or open heat exchange vents to release the hot air. “The temperature inside the cabin can now be controlled at 30 degrees Celsius. ”