An $80.6 million partnership with Honeywell Building Solutions announced this week is expected to save Tinker Air Force Base more than $170 million over 20 years by trimming its consumption of natural gas and water. The effort, accomplished through an energy savings performance contract, will be funded through the guaranteed savings in utility costs at the installation located outside of Oklahoma City …
The Army’s sustainability efforts over the previous two years were highlighted by a number of new initiatives, including the Net Zero program, the Energy Initiatives Task Force, the Senior Energy and Sustainability Council and the Army Sustainability Campaign Plan. On Wednesday, the Army released its 105-page Army Sustainability Report 2012, which features details on those initiatives along with a wealth of data showing the service’s progress in meeting its sustainability goals during 2010 and 2011 in the areas of services and infrastructure, readiness, materiel and human capital …
Expanding their portfolio of renewable energy projects has been a priority for the military services for much of the past decade, but prior to 2011 it still was an open question as to what statutory authorities could support their ambitions. Relying on enhanced use leasing proved problematic as budget scoring rules employed by the Office of Management and Budget consider most public-private ventures to be capital leases, a huge disincentive for the military’s attempt to rely on private sector investment to develop alternative energy plants to supply installations with power. Finally, early last year the Pentagon approved a 3-megawatt landfill gas project at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., that would provide the base energy via a long-term power purchase agreement authorized under 10 U.S.C. 2922a. That February 2011 approval set a critical precedent as previously the department had interpreted the statute as limiting the department’s authority to enter into PPAs of up to 30 years to geothermal projects. Until that point, DOD had limited PPAs tied to other renewables to 10 years, a prohibition which scared away private capital. Another breakthrough occurred in October 2011, when San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower Corp. closed on a 13.8-megawatt solar array at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., that would be financed by a 20-year PPA. The achievement marked DOD’s first solar plant financed by a long-term PPA under section 2922a, but more significantly, it proved that there is a reliable procurement vehicle that the military services can use to partner with industry to develop large-scale renewable energy projects. “This is a very significant deal,” Robert Tritt, a partner with law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge, told Defense Communities 360 …
California-based Biodico will build a sustainable biorefinery at Naval Base Ventura County, Calif., with a goal of jointly developing renewable fuel and energy technologies suitable for Navy and DOD facilities worldwide. The collaboration is intended to produce biofuel and bioenergy at prices competitive with unsubsidized conventional fuel and power. The privately financed facility will be partially supported by grants from the California Energy Commission. To lower the cost of biofuels, the plant will produce other valuable co-products and byproducts, reported Triple Pundit. Using a microgrid, the project also can provide excess power back to other operations on the site.
The Navy dedicated its largest solar array to date on Friday, a 13.78-megawatt photovoltaic power system at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake that already is generating the equivalent of more than 30 percent of the facility’s annual energy load. The solar plant, designed and built by San Jose-based SunPower Corp., will save the Navy an estimated $13 million over the next 20 years. Most notably, the effort marks the military’s first use of a long-term power purchase agreement …
Navy officials in Southern California discussed the importance of improving the technology for storing renewable energy during a visit this week from Roger Natsuhara, acting assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment. Natsuhara noted that the Navy has a variety of bases in remote locations that have the capacity to generate large amounts of renewable energy. But without options for storing the power, much of it goes to waste, he said …
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Wednesday reiterated pledges he made three years earlier to shift much of the service’s energy supply from carbon-based fuels to alternative energy sources. Mabus told attendees at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Naval Energy Forum that he was “absolutely confident” that the Navy will obtain more than half of its energy from sources other than petroleum by 2020. The Navy’s other energy goals call for half of all energy used by shore-based installations to come from renewable sources by 2020 …
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Friday approved a plan establishing 17 solar energy zones, totaling 285,000 acres of public lands, in six western states that will serve as priority areas for large-scale solar development. The programmatic environmental impact statement approved by Salazar provides a blueprint for utility-scale solar energy permitting in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah by establishing solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission lines, and incentives for development within those zones …
The Chinese company that President Obama blocked on Friday from building four wind farms near a Navy training facility in northern Oregon has filed a lawsuit, saying the president’s order exceeded his authority. The executive order President Obama issued Friday directs Ralls Corp. to divest its interest in the wind farm projects that it recently acquired due to national security concerns. It does not specify what the risks are, however. The wind farm sites are all within or in the vicinity of restricted airspace at Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman. Because of the president’s broad authority over national security, the company is unlikely to win its suit, reported Reuters.
Defense Department spending on renewable energy programs, including conservation measures, will increase steadily over the next 12 years, reaching almost $1.8 billion in 2025, according to a new report from Pike Research. Driven by a combination of legislation, national and international policy, strategic imperatives, and operational requirements, clean technologies are moving into the mainstream of DOD spending, and the department now is one of the most important drivers of clean energy markets in the United States …