The NEPTUNE wet plant is the mechanism that brings power and communication to the seafloor. The system will provide underwater electrical and optical outlets that will allow scientists and engineers to operate their instruments almost anywhere in a plate-scale section of the ocean on a 24/7 basis. A shore station will provide the power feed for the wet plant and the connectivity portal of the underwater system to the rest of the world.
Wet Plant Components
The wet plant consists of a backbone cable that carries high voltage power and multi-Gigabit data streams to a series of underwater nodes.
These nodes convert the incoming high voltage power to levels useable by scientific instrumentation. The nodes also convert the high bandwidth data streams into the proper formats for connecting individual instruments to the node. Each node will have sufficient power and bandwidth to simultaneously operate large numbers of instruments connected to the structure.
Expansion ports on the node will also enable remote instrumentation to be operated at distances of up to 100 km away from the node location.
