As U.S. Army Goes Green....

Industry Sees Green In U.S. Army Going Green

Nov 16, 2011 - It may not involve huge contracts for weapon systems, but with the U.S. Army planning to spend about $7.1 billion over the next decade on renewable-energy technologies, the defense industry — eager for new business opportunities — has started to take a hard look at what it can offer.

The new opportunity comes as defense officials look to shave some zeroes off of the Pentagon’s $15 billion-per-year oil bill (Aerospace DAILY, July 21). Army Secretary John McHugh announced over the summer the establishment of the Energy Initiatives Office Task Force, which is focused on “working with the private sector to execute large-scale renewable energy projects,” according to an Army statement.

The task force will conduct “an aggressive outreach effort to attract and engage private industry” in the renewable energy effort while working on turning over 5 million of the 15 million acres of land it owns within the U.S. for renewable energy infrastructure (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 15).

The announcement came shortly after defense giant Boeing teamed with Siemens to announce a “strategic alliance” for the development of smart-grid technologies to improve energy savings at military installations. (Smart grids and microgrids typically consist of multiple, linked generators spread across an entire installation that produce only enough energy to meet the demand at any given time, eliminating unnecessary power generation.) read more>>>