RESPEC PROJECT

Strategically situated at the South Pole on a 10,000-foot-thick, moving ice sheet, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is located in one of the most extreme and remote cold-region environments on earth. RESPEC provided complete electrical, mechanical, and utilities engineering services for the design of this third-generation United States research station.

The South Pole station houses and supports approximately 150 research and operating personnel. A premier facility of its kind, the station includes an 80,000-square-foot, elevated main structure that houses berthing, dining, administrative, recreational, support, medical, and science functions; a garage/shop; the station power plant and cargo facility; vehicle and aircraft refueling systems; and emergency facilities.
Innovative design features included the following:

• Extensive active and passive heat-recovery applications
• An ice cavity water well that is used as a thermal heat sink
• Jacket water and engine exhaust heat recovery from power plant engine-generator units
• Walk-in coolers that use a free-cooling system
• Heat recovery from high-intensity lighting in growth chambers.