Posts Tagged ‘renewable energy’

In a first for the Pentagon, Fort Bliss officials on Thursday turned on the Texas post’s microgrid, a system designed to efficiently harness renewable energy while reducing the installation’s vulnerability to outages to the power grid. The microgrid will decentralize how power is sent across the installation, ensuring that a major power outage doesn’t affect critical operations. It was designed by Lockheed Martin as part of a test effort funded by DOD’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program …

Kevin Geiss, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy, last week was recognized as a finalist for the Partnership for Public Service 2013 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America award. Geiss was nominated to receive the Management Excellence medal, which recognizes a federal employee for demonstrating superior leadership and management excellence through a significant contribution to the nation that exemplifies efficient, effective and results-oriented government …

A measure passed by the North Carolina House last week is designed to prevent wind energy projects from proceeding until the state and local governments have an opportunity to determine whether they would interfere with military training. HB 484 would require the developer to obtain a $3,500 state permit and to address the potential that the project encroaches on flight training or other military operations …

The Army announced the first awards Friday under its $7 billion procurement to obtain renewable energy through private sector financing, awarding contracts to five firms for potential geothermal energy projects. The contracts — which provide a three-year base with seven one-year options — allow the firms to compete for power purchase agreements lasting up to 30 years at DOD installations. Individual awards under the multiple-award, task order contract are being staggered by technology. Awards for the remaining technologies, solar, wind and biomass, are anticipated to be made through the end of 2013 …

The Defense Department’s Energy Siting Clearinghouse determined that 98 percent of the 1,769 commercial energy projects it reviewed in 2012 would have little or no impact on military testing, training or operational missions. The other 39 projects are undergoing further study, and defense officials are working with industry, state, tribal and local governments, and federal permitting and regulatory agencies to identify measures to mitigate those projects’ potential impacts …

DOD expects to incur more than $24 million in costs at two installations shuttered during the 2005 round of base closures to unwind renewable energy and privatized utility projects affected by the closures, according to a new Government Accountability Office study. At Fort Monmouth, N.J., the Army paid about $24.3 million to terminate a renewable energy contract involving ground source heat pumps and to install several boilers to replace the heat pumps. The Army also terminated a privatized electrical utility contract at Fort Monroe, Va., but has not yet reached a settlement with the utility over the termination …

The Air Force Civil Engineer Center recently has completed a year-long effort to reconcile a 1.5 million-acre discrepancy between Air Force and Bureau of Land Management records over what parcels being used by the service are considered withdrawn public lands. Withdrawn lands, which are managed as part of the public domain by BLM, are tracts that have been withdrawn from the operation of public land laws for military use …

In a review of the impact of the growing number of privatization projects on military installations, the Government Accountability Office concluded that future base closure rounds would benefit from the Defense Department providing more comprehensive information about the potential costs created when DOD terminates project agreements with the private sector. The congressional watchdog agency found that the department likely would incur liabilities following a BRAC round for renewable energy and privatized utility projects on affected installations …

The Army so far has secured $1.5 billion in third-party investments in alternative energy across its installations, helping it meet its energy efficiency targets. “We are ahead of the rest of the federal sector in using energy performance contracts,” said Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment …

The Army has agreed to partner with El Paso Electric to acquire a 20-megawatt solar farm at Fort Bliss, making it the military’s largest renewable project to date, the post’s commanding general announced Friday. The $120 million project, which will cover 200 acres and power the headquarters for the 1st Armored Division and much of the eastern portion of the installation, is scheduled to be completed in 2015, Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, the division and installation commander, told reporters. The partnership also would be the first between the military and a major local utility on a renewable project of this scale …