Why we sent a HE3DA Battery storage to the Arctic — and What it told us about our own product

22 hours ago

3 min read

Updated: 2 hours ago

When you develop batteries for defense and critical infrastructure, good lab numbers aren't enough. A customer deploying equipment in the field, where failure is not an option, wants to know one thing: will it hold up in places nobody can easily reach? That's why, four years ago, we decided to donate one of our HE3DA battery storages to the Josef Svoboda Czech Arctic Research Station — specifically to its field site in Petuniabukta, Svalbard, a hundred kilometers from the nearest infrastructure, with temperatures dropping to -30 °C and no grid connection whatsoever.

A Test We Couldn't Afford to Skip

Petuniabukta is exactly the kind of environment we describe in marketing materials as "extreme conditions" — except here, it isn't a figure of speech. The station previously relied on lead-acid batteries, which couldn't survive the cold and had to be shipped back to base every winter. For us, this was an ideal opportunity: rather than simply claiming HE3DA can run maintenance-free for years in extreme temperatures, we could let it prove that in real-world operation, outside our own control over the conditions.

We supplied the station with a 12-cell HE3DA storage system (15.6 kWh), which now charges all field electronics — laptops, radios, phones, and the drones used by research teams. The battery has been running for four years now, through repeated freezing cycles and months with no charging while the station sits empty over winter. According to the station operator, it has shown no measurable drop in capacity.

Operation follows a simple annual cycle: in the fall, before the researchers leave, the storage system is simply disconnected. It then sits through the entire winter with no intervention at all — uncharged, exposed to deep sub-zero cold. In spring, when the team returns, they just switch it back on and it works immediately, with no preparation or servicing required. Voltage drop over the winter is only around 0.01 V. Since installation, the battery has not required a single piece of maintenance.

Cell Voltage Before and After Winter (Sep 2025 vs. Jun 2026)

Cell No.	9/2025	6/2026
1	3.65	3.64
2	3.65	3.64
3	3.65	3.64
4	3.65	3.64
5	3.65	3.64
6	3.65	3.65
7	3.65	3.64
8	3.65	3.64
9	3.65	3.64
10	3.65	3.64
11	3.65	3.64
12	3.65	3.64

What This Means for Us as a Manufacturer

This result isn't just a good story for a press release. It's direct evidence of three properties our entire market position for HE3DA is built on:

Uncompromising durability — the battery operates across a temperature range where most commercial cells fail or degrade quickly.
Maintenance-free operation as a competitive advantage — where lead-acid batteries required logistics (shipping them back and forth), HE3DA stays in place all year round.
Long-term capacity stability — four years with no measurable degradation is exactly the kind of data we need when talking to defense and critical infrastructure customers, who often deploy batteries for years in locations without easy access to service.

In short: Svalbard field-tested, in practice, what we otherwise have to argue for using test-protocol figures. And in commercial conversations with customers solving power supply in remote or hostile locations, four years of independently observable operation is a stronger argument than any presentation.

The HE3DA battery's performance in Svalbard was covered in the August 2026 issue of the Czech magazine 21. století, in its "Pod lupou" (Under the Microscope) section.