Posts Tagged ‘renewable energy’

Marine Corps representatives last week briefed commissioners and planners from Pamlico County, located on the coast of North Carolina, about the possible ways a wind farm could interfere with flight operations at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The representatives from Marine Corps Installations East told the county officials that tall wind turbines present a threat of collision to low-flying aircraft and can hamper the use of radar …

The Air Force recorded numerous milestones last year on the way to reaching its goals for conserving energy, increasing its reliance on renewable sources and building sustainable facilities, according to highlights of DOD’s 2012 Annual Energy Management Report. One of the Air Force’s major accomplishments last year was developing a new acquisition process for renewable energy after it formed the Air Force Civil Engineer Center by merging the Air Force Real Property Agency, the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency and the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment …

With plans to issue solicitations for three renewable energy projects before the end of the year, after recently releasing requests for proposals for two others, the Army believes it has taken a significant step toward its goal to produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy at its installations by 2025. At the same time, the Energy Initiatives Task Force — the Army’s one-stop office for implementing large-scale projects at its installations — and the Army Corps of Engineers are evaluating industry responses to the multi-award task order contract RFP issued last year …

With funding expected to be constrained for the foreseeable future, the Air Force Civil Engineer Center increasingly is looking to the private sector to help the service’s installations meet their environmental remediation, renewable energy development and maintenance needs, Center Director Joe Sciabica wrote this week in a commentary. “We can no longer count on consistent and predictable funding to meet our sustainability needs …

“Early communication” between the Air Force and prospective developers about upcoming projects that rely on either enhanced use leasing (EUL) or power purchase agreements (PPAs) is key to ensuring the success of those ventures by reducing the chances that unexpected hurdles will slow their progress. That observation was one of many that resulted from a partnership discussion among Air Force officials, developers and community leaders held last week during ADC’s Installation Innovation Forum in San Antonio …

The commonwealth of Massachusetts will fund a program to conduct comprehensive energy audits at each of its six military installations as part of a first-of-its-kind initiative to identify opportunities for renewable energy development, officials announced Thursday. The effort is intended to help the Defense Department achieve two of its key priorities — reducing base operating costs and boosting energy security — and builds on the state’s leadership in promoting energy efficiency and clean energy …

The Army on Wednesday dedicated its largest solar photovoltaic system at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., a 4.1-megawatt array that will generate 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. The $16.8 million array designed by Solaria Corp. features a ground-mounted, single-axis tracking system that is projected to increase energy yield by up to 30 percent over fixed systems. The array consists of 15,500 sun-tracking solar panels spread over 42 acres …

The capacity of microgrids at DOD installations is estimated to reach 55 megawatts by 2018, according to a recent report from Pike Research. While the Marine Corps has shown the fastest initial growth spurt in microgrid capacity, because of its sheer size the Army is expected to experience the largest increase in annual capacity over time. More than 40 bases either have operating microgrids or are planning and demonstrating microgrid technologies …

Chicago-based Invenergy said last week it will not go ahead with a planned, 49-turbine wind farm in eastern North Carolina that posed a hazard to low-level flights from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. The company said it would consider altering the layout of the turbines — which, at the tip of the blades, extend 492 feet into the air — or moving the 11,000-acre project in Beaufort County to a new site …

The investor behind a 12.3-megawatt rooftop solar installation at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey last week announced it had closed on $35 million of financing for the effort and planned to begin construction. The investment made by New York-based True Green Capital Management will allow photovoltaic arrays to be installed on the base’s privatized family housing and generate an estimated 13.7 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy annually …