US Division of Protection Plots Renewable Vitality Takeover – Insta News Hub

Join daily news updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or follow us on Google News!

The US Division of Protection has been an early adopter of solar energy at its personal services, particularly out West the place plentiful area is offered. Now the company goals to deploy its shopping for energy in the direction of components East. Earlier this month the DOD connected with the Basic Companies Administration in a scheme to attract extra renewable vitality sources from a large swath of the US, protecting 65 million folks in 14 Atlantic and Midwest states together with the District of Columbia, all with the purpose of transitioning its services to 100% carbon free electrical energy.

DOD Hearts Renewable Vitality

CleanTechnica has spilled loads of ink over the Pentagon’s eagerness to push the renewable vitality envelope for the reason that early years of the Obama administration. A number of the exercise has centered on navy services which have room for on-site solar arrays. Different solar technologies, together with foundational photovoltaic research, rooftop photo voltaic installations, portable solar devices, and solar-enabled microgrids are additionally within the combine (see extra of our military coverage here).

The US navy has additionally had a hand in fostering the emerging wave energy field, together with the institution of a wave energy test bed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Oahu.

Wind energy has been a bit extra of a blended bag for the US navy, partly because of issues arising from air traffic and weaponry operations, together with nuclear missile silos. These issues can lead to changes to plans for establishing offshore wind farms in addition to onshore tasks.

Nonetheless, again in 2013 the US Military Corps of Engineers included 17 wind power contracts in a $7 billion soup-to-nuts renewable vitality procurement spherical.

The brand new procurement plan takes it as much as a complete new degree by protecting all the PJM grid area, which covers all or components of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

The brand new GSA plan signifies that extra wind energy is on the best way, contemplating the massive offshore wind buildup going down alongside the Atlantic coast.

Along with sourcing electrical energy for protection businesses, the plan additionally covers different federal businesses within the PJM area.

GSA & DOD To Renewable Vitality Haters: La-la-la-la-la We Can’t Hear you

We’re specializing in renewable vitality right here, although to be clear the GSA procurement partnership doesn’t restrict the DOD to wind and photo voltaic. In a press launch saying the plan, GSA and DOD use the phrases “carbon pollution-free electrical energy,” “clear electrical energy,” “clear vitality,” clear, dependable, and reasonably priced electrical energy,” and “locally-made clear electrical energy,” and “CFE,” which means carbon free vitality.

No matter you name it, the plan tracks with President Biden’s 2021 directive for all federal businesses to acquire 100% “carbon pollution-free electricity” by 2030, with an additional stipulation that no less than half of the demand is to be stuffed from native sources obtainable 24/7.

That leaves loads of area for renewable vitality, with or with out vitality storage. Within the renewables class that primarily means wind and photo voltaic, since geothermal sources are quite slim within the focused area. For now, West Virginia is the one geothermal outlier.

The prospects for constructing complete new hydropower services within the PJM area are additionally quite dim, however repowering or adding on to current operations is one pathway to growing the nation’s retailer of carbon-free electrical energy. That features including pumped storage capacity, which is being talked up as a solution to repurpose deserted coal fields.

Nuclear vitality, after all, additionally falls underneath the “carbon pollution-free” stipulation, although it’s unclear if the navy’s price range would assist costly new nuclear services. Renewable pure gasoline may even have a shot if the “carbon pollution-free” stipulation doesn’t pull the rug out from underneath it.

In that regard, observe the cautious wording of “carbon pollution-free.” That might go away room for coal and pure gasoline with carbon seize, however not a lot. Carbon capture and sequestration projects have did not take root right here within the US, partly as a result of they’re costly and partly as a result of they require new pipelines from the supply to the storage facility, and no person desires a brand new pipeline of their yard.

Additional clouding the image are oil stakeholders (taking a look at you, ExxonMobil), which may deploy sequestered carbon to boost the output from oil wells.

Capturing and recycling carbon from industrial operations into cement and different merchandise is one other solution to sequester carbon with out the oil extraction angle, so keep tuned for extra on that.

Right here’s What The DOD Actually Thinks About Renewable Vitality

Together with its new grid-wide plan for pumping up its clear energy profile, the DOD additionally has a message concerning the local weather disaster for the celebration of “Help our Troops,” which continues to ignore the looming catastrophe even because the Protection Division advocates for pressing motion on local weather change.

“Two years in the past, when President Biden signed Government Order 14057, we knew DOD could be an enormous a part of demonstrating U.S. management by greening federal authorities operations,” defined Brendan Owens, Assistant Secretary of Protection for Vitality, Installations, and Surroundings. “At the moment’s announcement will assist facilitate grid transformation to handle the local weather disaster and to offer clear, dependable, and reasonably priced electrical energy that ensures mission resilience for DoD operations.”

Owens dipped into extra element concerning the Protection Division’s local weather adaptation plans final April, in his 2023 Earth Day presentation on the Pentagon.

“…we’re dedicated as a division to protecting our planet, and ensuring health and safety for our folks,” Owens stated.

“Key developments in vitality resilience, environmental stewardship, air pollution prevention analysis and cleanup, and local weather resilience will assist us confront among the biggest challenges the division is dealing with,” he defined. “Navy services should adapt to an more and more difficult menace setting. Enhancing vitality resilience and reliability is essential to that adaptation.”

As for renewable vitality, Owens used the event to attract consideration to the space solar field, which might be the last word Protection Division renewable vitality venture.

Area photo voltaic appeared somewhat pie within the sky after we first heard about it, however again in 2009 the US Naval Research Laboratory surveyed the know-how and concluded that the {hardware} is offered to seize renewable vitality from orbiting photo voltaic arrays in area, and beam it all the way down to receivers on Earth.

A lot has occurred since then, together with a doable contribution from the US Space Force within the type of a complicated orbiting transmitter, so keep tuned for extra on that.

Observe me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Publish, and LinkedIn.

Photograph (cropped): “Brig. Gen. William H. Kale III, Air Drive Civil Engineer Heart commander, speaks on the Edwards Solar Enhanced Use Lease Project ribbon reducing ceremony at Edwards Air Drive Base, Calif., Feb. 2, 2023. This venture is the biggest private-public collaboration in Division of Protection historical past” (U.S. Air Drive photograph by Adam Bowles).