Energy Efficiencies in Afghanistan

Marines Prove Energy Efficiencies in Afghanistan

Marines and sailors of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and their Afghan army counterparts pose in front of a modified ZeroBase Regenerator -- solar panels -- at Patrol Base Sparks in the Sangin district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Jan. 12, 2011. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. William Price

May 5, 2011 – There’s a peculiar sight on Forward Operating Base Jackson in the Sangin district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The base is one of several in southern Afghanistan where the Marine Corps has set up solar panels and uses solar blankets as sources of renewable energy.

Col. Robert “Brutus” Charette Jr., director of expeditionary energy for the Marine Corps, is working to ensure that deploying such sources of renewable energy become standard procedure. But he admits it hasn’t come easy.

When 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, received orders last year to deploy to Afghanistan, experiments in environmentalism did not come to mind.

“When we told them they’d be taking renewables to the battlefield, they were not amused,” Charette told an audience at an energy, environment, defense and security conference here yesterday.

That was before they trained in renewable energy at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. -- before they’d proven the Corps’ new position that resource efficiency equals combat effectiveness.

At first, the Marines grudgingly accepted the solar panels and other renewable energy sources, saying they could go on “a slow boat to Afghanistan,” Charette said. After they trained with the equipment and experienced the efficiency of lighter packs and less reliance on resupplies, they said to put all of it on the planes, he said.

“That’s when I knew we had something,” he added. {continued}