Well what a day. Today was my first attempt of installing solar thermal panels and I know you’re all asking, “Did it go well?”. Let me tell you it went spot on.

Having only ever seen a solar thermal panel attached to my colleague Pete Forest’s roof back in the UK, during a show-around to see how it all works, let’s just say I was not fully confident when the time came that I could successfully install not one, but two panels!

The beauty of this solar thermal technology is that it’s simple. A basic knowledge of plumbing and some hard work, and anyone out there can install solar thermal panels. With the added benefit of my right hand man Benjamin Contreras, one of 2041’s Antarctic contacts, the job seemed to go very easily.

Once the frames were built, the individual solar tubes fit straight into the manifold. I then attached a pump and a few sensors to form a fully working solar thermal system.

The greatest part of the day came once the system was up and running. As we pumped the first bit of water through, we could immediately feel a rise in temperature in the water, and in this very beautiful, sunny, warm and humid weather (HA!), it was a good thing, as I needed a shower.

This year, nPOWER has partnered with 2041 to make the E-Base project a success, and will be powering the energy side of the E-Base in Antarctica. npower have created a bespoke renewable energy plan that will enable the E-Base to be self-sufficient and run completely on wind, solar and solar thermal components.

Watch our short film of the npower team preparing to ship the E-Base materials to Antarctica, and get a taste for the wonderful broadcasts to come during the E-Base Goes Live project in early March 2008.

Download Preparation for the E-Base