Why is the Army committed to renewable energy? It’s all about security
Over Memorial Day weekend, the blog will feature posts about how the U.S. military is utilizing renewable energy technology to bring down costs, maximize security, and–most importantly–save lives.
The United States Army is committed to producing one gigawatt of renewable energy–enough to power 250,000 homes–for a very important reason: national security.
Katherine Hammack, the assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment said in a statement this week that the Army is very aware that military bases in the U.S. are dependent on the national electric grid, more so than it would like to be given the circumstances.
“Right now,” Hammack said in a press release from the Army News Service, ”the bases operate off of a nationwide electric grid, which as populations grow, just like much of the infrastructure in the United States, is getting aged and vulnerable. So this is really a move toward distributed energy where you are generating energy at the point of use. So we want to generate energy on the military bases.”
To explore new strategies and private-sector relationships, the Army will host the Joint Army-Air Force Energy Forum in early June in Arlington, Va. The Army believes the future of energy development will depend on private-sector funding, an arrangement that has already become common between military bases and alternative-energy companies who install solar or other renewable energy projects on military land.
As to how renewable energy relates to national security, Hammack said that the Army will depend on renewables to provide an independent power source for operations to serve and protect the community in the event that the national power grid fails.
This strategy falls in line with a directive from President Obama to explore renewable energy options. The message has been reiterated to federal agencies throughout his administration.
