President Obama is at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada today. Not to talk to the drone pilots or network warfare specialists stationed there — but to highlight the installation’s king-sized solar array.
For years, the U.S. military has been on a lurching, irregular march towards green power and green energy. Along the way, it’s built biodiesel generators in Baghdad, bought thousands of electric vehicles, installed wind farms at bases around the country — and put together America’s largest solar array, at Nellis.
The 140-acre array, made from more than 72,000 solar panels, went online in December, 2007. It’s designed to generate more than 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
“That’s the equivalent of powering about 13,200 homes during the day. It’s a project that took about half a year to complete, created 200 jobs, and will save the U.S. Air Force, which is the largest consumer of energy in the federal government, nearly $1 million a year,” Obama said. “It will also reduce harmful carbon pollution by 24,000 tons a year, which is the equivalent of removing 4,000 cars from our roads. Most importantly, this base serves as a shining example of what’s possible when we harness the power of clean, renewable energy to build a new, firmer foundation for economic growth.”
The military, for its part, is pushing ahead with alt-energy and alt-power efforts. The recent stimulus bill gives the armed forces an extra $300 million to fund 51 energy research projects, plus another $120 million to go towards energy conservation. The Pentagon’s new budget contains an extra $75 million in new energy projects — from “Landfill Gas Energy Capture” to a “Tactical, Deployable Micro-Grid.” And plans are proceeding for a 500-megawatt solar array at Ft. Irwin, California that would make the Nellis panel collection look teeny by comparison
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