The International Arctic Station IAS Snowflake

Problem: Climate change in the permafrost zone has a significant impact on changing weather conditions worldwide, including in all BRICS countries. According to estimates of the Russian scientists, more than 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic matter are frozen at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. In the land zone of the permafrost of Russia, which covers more than half of the country’s territory contains billions of cubic meters of methane. Today, methane emissions are estimated to account for up to 30% of total carbon emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere. Changes in the state of permafrost may lead to the release of methane stored in it, which will negatively influence the climate. Solution: IAS Snowflake is being created for interdisciplinary applied research, one of the areas of which is in-depth, continuous and comprehensive monitoring of the state of permafrost, the dynamics of climate change in general, as well as the impact of climate change in the Arctic on weather conditions in all BRICS countries. Research at the station has great practical importance to go further in the serial production of new "green" energy equipment. Problem: High cost of diesel fuel in remote settlements of the Arctic and the Far East (the cost of electricity exceeds the average by tens of times; tariffs for the population are subsidized by the state, which bears the main burden of financing the industry). Solution: One of the key areas of the IAS Snowflake - innovative solutions for autonomous energy supply of isolated objects and settlements. The station will present technologies for autonomous heat production (heat pumps based on a lake collector, hydrogen heating), electricity (autonomous energy systems with support-balancing systems based on solar and wind energy, hydrogen and lithium-ion energy storage systems), motor fuel (electric charging and hydrogen filling stations), hydrogen transport (all-terrain vehicles). All of the above solutions are relevant for any BRICS country, regardless of the climate zone in which it is located. For example, hydrogen all-terrain vehicles can be effectively used not only in permafrost, but also in sand dunes, research on autonomous energy systems and energy storage systems with some modifications for the climate is also relevant for isolated objects and settlements in subtropical and tropical latitudes. The heat supply solutions developed at IAS Snowflake work not only for heating, but also for cooling buildings and structures.