Supporting the IK Foundation in Iceland
Fuel cell powered field station
The IK Foundation runs projects to promote cultural and natural history. The aim here was to design and build an autonomous field station, Solander’s Eye - which sits in a remote environment monitoring the wildlife and the biosphere without intervention.
This is the second project FCSL has been part of - we helped design, develop and build a similar field station for them in Svalbard in 2019. This new field station was purchased by the University of Iceland which will use the data to support a variety of projects.
EFOY fuel cells provide power to the field station
Tom Chicken and Henry Mills from FCSL travelled to Iceland to help construct the field station on the remote island of Jökulnes. Their daily commute to the site involved travelling by boat to the small island and then a 30 minute walk to the location. The Field Station provides the opportunity to monitor the landscape biosphere, such a wildlife, weather, vegetation, atmosphere and more. Powered by EFOY fuel cells, the station will run without human intervention for up to a year, providing live data to the university
Jökulnes is a remote, uninhabited wilderness, with little or no trace of traffic or other human activities. A large part of the area was covered by a glacier in 1998 and therefore part of the glacial cap of Vatnajökull, one of the defined Wilderness of Vatnajökull National Park, when the national park was established. In 2019, Vatnajökull National Park was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The remote island of Jökulnes