Military Deploys Solar, Wind and Biomass Power
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originally posted at:
http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/magazine/15-11/st_nellis


Olive Drab Goes Green: The Military Deploys Solar, Wind and Biomass Power
By Amanda Griscom Little

The Pentagon developed the Internet, created GPS, and supercharged the markets for microchips and jets. Next target: renewable energy. In December, the Department of Defense will complete the 15-megawatt solar installation shown here — the nation's largest — at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas. Operated by a computerized tracking system that follows the sun's path, the sprawling array of 70,000 crystalline silicon solar panels will generate up to 30 percent of the electricity needed by the 12,000-person facility. And solar is only one front in the military's green campaign. One of the world's largest geothermal installations, which turns Earth's heat into electricity via 166 wells bored as far down as 10,000 feet below the surface, can be found at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in California. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba derives up to a quarter of its power from wind turbines — one of about a dozen wind-powered US military bases worldwide. And Dyess Air Force Base in Texas is powered completely by biomass fuel generated from paper industry byproducts, making it one of the largest single-site consumers of green electricity in the world. Charge!