They tried nuclear at McMurdo, way back when, and ended up with 10,000m3 of contaminated rock they had to export, as the aptly named nukey poo was a bit... poo. Poor reliability, not much power, lots of contamination. All that’s there now is a plaque and an NSF rad monitor a little bit up Obs hill.
In Antarctica, geothermal would probably be the most reliable renewable power source for somewhere like McMurdo, as they’re practically on Erebus - but way out in the interior, you’d have a few km of ice to contend with before getting to any kind of geo-anything.
Weirdly, I was walking along behind a tractor yesterday, and found myself enjoying the stink of diesel fumes - it took me a few minutes to realise why - it’s the smell of Antarctica, minus the Penguin shit, as practically all power there comes from burning diesel!
As to a Mars analogue, the dry valleys, just over the sound from McMurdo, are pretty close, and a lot of research of the “will it work on Mars?” type is carried out there - much of the Viking hardware was tested out in Taylor Valley, for instance.
Wouldn't it be better left in Antarctica than where ever else it was dumped?
For a long while, waste management at McMurdo was “tow it out onto the sea ice, and wait for summer”. The sound is littered with who only knows what.
In this case the result might have been the Russians deploying nuclear energy or even weapons there.
That said, the international community is not "society". You can have all the treaties you want, the threat of violence comes when nations care to break them.
Maybe this is a great candidate for vertical axis wind mills / turbines?
As I understand it, vertical axle don't suffer the red-lining problem of horizontal axle / fin based turbines, and while generally less efficient than conventional wind turbines, they'd ultimately be more effective in this environment.
How did they F that up? The Russians manage to successfully use nuclear power for similarly remote stuff and it works well until locals decide they want to steal parts to sell for money (which is a problem you don't have in Antartcia).
If you need a transmitter or relay station hundreds of miles from people to run for years without fueling... RTGs are an option for governments.
One thing it does share (on smaller stations, not McMurdo) is the isolation and the impact on social structures. Concordia, run by the French and Italians, it has an ongoing relationship with the European Space Agency.
[0]: https://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Iceworm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century
Maybe you could even remove the air from a case if feasible?