Posts Tagged ‘energy security’

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam will be using a hydrogen fuel cell power system manufactured by Hydrogenics Corp., the Mississauga, Canada-based developer of hydrogen generation and power system products announced last week. The system will integrate Hydrogenics’ power systems, power electronic converters and hardware in an outdoor-housed container to supply 100 kilowatts of power output at the joint Air Force-Navy base in Honolulu …

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 …

The Pentagon obligated $1.0 billion in fiscal 2011 on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, according to the department’s newly released FY 2011 Annual Energy Management Report. The largest share of funding came from direct appropriations through military construction, operation and maintenance, and defense working capital fund accounts. In FY 2011, the military funded 873 energy conservation, renewable energy and water conservation projects for $611 million …

The Air Force was the only military service in fiscal 2011 to meet the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct) mandate that 5.0 percent of energy consumed at installations come from renewable energy sources, as it obtained 6.0 percent of its electricity consumption from renewables. Overall, the Defense Department acquired 3.1 percent of the electricity it consumed at installations from renewable sources. The Army obtained 0.5 percent of its electricity from alternative energy sources; the Navy, 1.0 percent; and the Marine Corps, 1.2 percent …

Dorothy Robyn, who oversaw the effort to carry out the recommendations from BRAC 2005 as DOD’s installations chief, will leave the department shortly to become commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service, the unit that manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio. Robyn, who has been deputy undersecretary for installations and environment since July 2009, will join GSA “in the coming weeks,” according to a memo Dan Tangherlini, GSA’s acting administrator, sent employees on Tuesday …

Last week’s pre-proposal conference for the Army’s $7 billion acquisition of renewable energy through a multiple-award task order contract attracted more than 600 industry representatives to Huntsville, Ala., a clear signal that the service’s effort to streamline its procurement process and listen to companies’ concerns about the draft solicitation paid off. “To reach the Army’s goal of deploying 1 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2025 will require a different way of doing business with the private sector. The issuance of the MATOC is a clear milestone for us and the significant interest we’ve seen from industry indicates that we are on the right path …

Last week’s groundbreaking for a $9.6 million solar farm at Tooele Army Depot, Utah, assumed an unusually high profile, as Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, participated in the ceremonies. The project relies on an innovative technology developed by Infinia Corp. It combines reflective mirrors on a dish that tracks the sun with a Stirling engine that generates the electricity, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. The Ogden, Utah-based firm will plant 430 PowerDishes, each 22 feet in diameter, on 15 acres of vacant land at the depot …

In remarks at an Army Corps of Engineers conference last week, the Army’s installations chief urged the agency’s senior leaders to continue to find creative solutions to the many infrastructure challenges facing the service. “As we work together to enhance the Army’s mission effectiveness, we will need not only your engineering skills and technical expertise, but your creativity, adaptability and ability to understand and find solutions to complex issues,” Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, said at the conference in Little Rock, Ark. She focused on energy security, sustainability and the shift to renewable energy sources …

While increasing the supply of energy and cultivating a more energy-conscious culture are important aims for the Air Force, trimming demand is the most critical goal for the military’s largest consumer of energy, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said in remarks to the 2012 National Clean Energy Summit last week. “Reducing demand is the single best action the Air Force can take to enhance resiliency, primarily by developing more efficient aircraft and designing energy-smarter buildings,” Donley said. “Exciting things are happening in these areas,” added the secretary …