United States Leadership Forum

WASHINGTON – April 11, 2011.  The Army, Air Force, and Navy each will strive to produce 1 gigawatt of renewable energy to power their installations by 2025, according to a goal announced Wednesday by The White House.

The services will rely on private sector financing through authorities such as power purchase agreements, enhanced use leasing, energy savings performance contracts and utility energy savings contracts to develop the new sources of clean energy, including solar, wind, biomass and geothermal. Based on the services’ individual commitments, however, the target could be reached much earlier.

The Navy previously announced a goal of generating 1 gigawatt of renewable energy at its installations by 2020. Similarly, Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said the service’s newly established Energy Initiatives Task Force would try to develop 1 gigawatt of alternative energy on its installations by 2020, according to congressional testimony last month.

The Air Force had not previously announced a target for obtaining 1 gigawatt from renewable sources, but it now has set a target of 2016.

The 1-gigawatt target is a precursor to the department-wide goal for all services to produce or procure 25 percent of their electricity for facilities from renewable resources by 2025. The Army and Air Force are sticking to that goal, based on this year’s congressional testimony. The Navy, however, is aiming to produce at least 50 percent of its shore-based energy requirements from alternative sources by 2020.

The White House also said the Energy Department, through its Advanced Research Projects Agency, is funding a $30 million research competition to improve the capability of energy storage devices, including batteries. The department’s Advanced Management and Protection of Energy-storage Devices program will promote the development of next-generation energy storage sensing and control technologies, including enhancing the performance of hybrid energy storage modules being developed for war-fighting equipment. The effort is focusing on technologies with the potential to:

• increase the fuel efficiency of military generators to help reduce the need for fuel-convoys on the battlefield;
• improve the reliability of military aircraft generators to help to reduce operation and maintenance costs;
• enable next generation high power weapons systems and fuel efficient operations for Navy ships;
• create a new generation of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles; and
• enhance the efficiency and reliability of the U.S. electricity grid

Source:  Association of Defense Communities