I guess you think I'm stupid. That's OK, I kind of expected that. I'll try to hit the main points:

1. We do know the variation and characteristics of sea ice quite well.
2. For the SIW, we're going to start somewhere that the ice will freeze fairly early in the season. We're basing our models on the north coast of AK near Pruhoe bay. This should give us at least 8 months on the ice to get the first rounds of experiments done.
3. Power. Each unit is self a contained stand alone unit. I am aware of the environmental challenges. Several of the turbine manufactuers are designing systems in our size range to operate at -40F, which should suffice, but that is obviously critical design decision. One thing in our favor is that cold conditions favor electronic components, such as wire and batteries. I have a quite a bit of experience designing off grid hybrid systems, as do several of our team members. It is an exciting challenge but I'm certain we're qualified for the task.
4. We're not going to use pipes for distribution. We're going to use channels, similar to irrigation channels, that are cut into the ice. We've been through the models and on paper it looks good. We need to get out onto the ice and test our theories. If you're qualified and genuinely interested in that, please tell me and I'll let you in. It's too much tech to talk about on this thread.
5. Logistics on ice. My thinking on that right now is cableways and sleds when we get into moving mass. Snow mobiles with sleds should suffice for the initial systems. The systems really aren't that heavy. The turbines and the batteries are the heaviest part, and for 50 kW or below systems, we're talking about 1-3 tons of gear maximum. There is a lot of support stuff we'll need like a trench cutter, but I think we can figure out how to deal with that before we go.
6. Summer. We're planning the foundation and the igloo style shelter to be made from bamboo. The foundation will be wide enough and thick enough to support the entire system nucleus on water without any ice - not that we plan to do that, but just in case - so if the ice breaks apart and floats out to sea, we can find the system and recover it.
7. Everything will fit in shipping containers, so getting it to the land base shouldn't be a big problem.
8. Other techniques; reflective satellites, cloud seeding, etc..I've looked carefully at that and so have a lot of our members. I don't want to say anything bad about them because tehy do have merits. However, by far, this will be the most cost effective solution. I haven't anything that comes close. Another really big advantage we have is that our cellular unit size is very affordable - we can build small systems to prove that it works. We don't need to launch rockets into space. As a result, we can start small. Learn. And grow.
9. Walruses: my favorite topic :) I'm very well aware of what they need, but let's treat the great bioturbator as a separate discussion. Thank you for your question. I hope I've addressed the main points of your skepticism.