Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Fort Irwin: soon to have a solar farm
There is no bigger gas guzzler in the federal government than the Defense Department, which spent $18 billion last year alone on fuel, thanks in large part to the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. But it might not be long before the American military becomes a “green” operation, and not just because it uses camouflage. The Pentagon is now pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research to discover alternative fuels and energy sources because for every gallon of fuel it doesn’t have to ship, fewer soldiers will be at risk of getting attacked in a supply convoy. “It takes drivers off the road,” said Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson, director of operations and logistics for the Army.
To help reduce oil consumption, which currently is eating up 500 million gallons a year at forward operating bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department is allocating $300 million of the $7.4 billion it received from the economic stimulus package to accelerate existing programs for developing alternative fuels and saving energy. One program is working on converting garbage into oil, using an anaerobic microbial process, while another run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is trying to convert algae into jet propulsion fuel for Navy and Air Force planes. The Army is even trying to go hybrid with its engines for tactical vehicles
In addition to finding alternative sources of fuel, the military is working on developing small, lightweight, solar mats that could be used to power up operating equipment at bases, and the Army is partnering with a private firm to build a 500-megawatt solar farm at Fort Irwin in California, to generate enough energy to power the base, with plenty leftover to sell back to the state’s electrical grid.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Pentagon Prioritizes Pursuit Of Alternative Fuel Sources (by Steve Vogel, Washington Post)
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