Following a ribbon cutting, the solar panel field located east of Liberty Village and south of Johnson Drive at Fort Hood, Texas, was turned on March 27, 2012. The field consists of 3,000 photovoltaic panels mounted to a steel frame that span across a four-acre site that will generate one million kilowatt-hours annually. US Army photo by Christine Luciano

U.S. Army
By Christine Luciano
Fort Hood DPW Environmental Outreach

After a year of planning and construction, Fort Hood and Universal Services Fort Hood Inc. activated a solar field of nearly 3,000 photovoltaic panels.

The four-acre solar field, near Liberty Village community, will generate one million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually for 300 single-family homes.
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There is no good way to create an RSS feed for those articles that I write for Yahoo! News. This link pulls most of them up, but they cannot be sorted by date. Curiously, Google seems to do a better job indexing these pieces than Yahoo.
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Sgt. John Shyne, 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, South Dakota Army National Guard, removes a “fuel donut” from a compression cylinder, Jan. 29, 2011, at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan. Made from recycled paper and saw dust, the fuel donuts provide an alternative heat source for Afghan families who live in homes without modern heating conveniences. Photo by Capt. Anthony Deiss

South Dakota Army National Guard soldiers and other service members stationed here are getting environmentally conscious by initiating a waste-recycle pilot program, designed to provide a renewable heat source for Afghans living in the capital of Kabul.

Members of the 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade are volunteering their time to develop a “fuel donut” made from recycled materials, which burns like a briquette and provides an alternative heat source for Afghan families who live in homes without modern heating conveniences.

“This program is good for everybody – the Afghans, the environment and our camps,” said Capt. Robert Small, design engineer/environmental area manager for the Directorate of Public Works.

Using shredded paper and saw dust from the camp, the material is combined with water and ash and pressed into shape of a donut or roll. The donut can burn for about an hour, providing heat for warmth or cooking, and gives off few emissions.

“This is a fairly clean burning source and it’s sustainable. Its gives the Afghans something to keep their homes warm, without releasing toxic fumes,” said Small of Sioux Falls, S.D. “The camps produce a lot of paper and construction waste, and it normally ends up in the landfills – this is a way we can keep it from going into the landfills, reuse it, and provide a product to Afghans who really need it.”

According to Small, other materials can be used such as grasses, leaves or anything that can be composted.

Initially conceived as a product to be made by the camp’s volunteer-outreach program and donated to Afghan families during humanitarian missions, Small and the outreach volunteers have higher aspirations for the fuel donut, and are looking at ways which will allow Afghans to make their own.

“The fuel donut is not a new concept. It has been used by humanitarian organizations in developing countries around the world, but it is fairly new to Afghanistan with only a few contractors developing them here,” said Small. “But from a volunteer standpoint, we not only want to provide these donuts to the Afghans, but provide them with the knowledge to make them.”

Using basic wood-building materials, the 196th members have designed a prototype press and drying rack, which can be made by Afghans allowing them the means to create fuel donuts for their family, village or even as a source of income for themselves.

“When we started this program, we wanted to make it simple. The materials are from the scrap heap and the construction techniques for the equipment can be made with limited carpentry skills,” said Small. “Just about anybody can do this, and the whole family can get involved and produce enough fuel for themselves and maybe even have a micro-business to sell it.”

Once the program is fully developed for Camp Phoenix, Small hopes start-up programs can be initiated at other military installations throughout the Kabul Base Cluster, and the manufacturing process can be facilitated with surrounding villages.

In the long-term, Small hopes the program to be expanded to bases throughout the country and developed in rural areas.

“We’re trying to make this program sustainable for villages and refugee camps – with different recipes for different areas with whatever waste streams they have available,” said Small. “I hope the Afghans will realize that we are here really trying to help them and that we care about the environment and the people who really need the fuel to stay warm.”

DVIDS
Story by Capt. Anthony Deiss

The Marine Corps has deployed an experimental forward operating base to Afghanistan to assess how it stands up to rugged operational conditions while relying solely on renewable technology and energy-saving techniques.

The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment’s Company I is moving into position in Helmand province, where it will sustain itself almost entirely using renewable energy, Marine Corps Col. Bob “Brutus” Charette said during a panel discussion this week.

Charette, the Marine Corps’ “energy czar,” cited this milestone as the Defense Department observed a week of energy security events.

The project began with an experiment to determine baseline requirements for company-size and smaller FOBs that typically have to provide their own fuel, electricity, water and food.

From there, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Combat Development Command, acquisition community and others evaluated existing commercial, off-the-shelf technology able to meet those needs. The result is Ex-FOB, a tent complex that runs on solar-powered generators and other “green” energy to power its systems.

Marines field testing the system at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., operated 190 hours straight with almost no fossil fuel usage, Charette reported. Only their observation equipment required generator power. “We’re working on that right now,” he said.

In this next phase of the Ex-FOB development, deployed Marines will evaluate how it fares in a combat environment.

“We took the 80-percent solution,” Charette said. “We trained Marines up on it and we deployed them.”

The jury is still out on how it will perform, Charette said.

“But I like to say we are cautiously optimistic,” he said. “We will see how things go.”

A fighter pilot appointed as the first director of the Corps’ new Expeditionary Energy Office, Charette has taken on the improbable role of “Green Baron” without losing his “Red Baron” mindset.

Technology has made the Marine Corps increasingly lethal, he said, noting that a company of about 150 Marines on the battlefield today has about the same combat effectiveness of 1,000 Marines 10 years ago.

But those advancements in information and communication technology, intelligence assets and computer servers, Charette said, have come at a cost in weight, bulk and energy dependence.

“In the Marine Corps, we think of ‘expeditionary’ as lethal, austere and fast,” he said. “We’ve become extremely lethal, but today, we are a little less fast and a little less austere.”

In fact, if the Marine Corps took its 80,000 generators to sea, “we would sink a nuclear aircraft carrier,” Charette joked.

“We are in real danger of not fitting on Navy shipping right now,” he said, turning serious. “That’s a huge concern for us. So we need to get back to our naval roots, we need to get back to the sea and we need to go back with all the lethality of the systems we have today.”

Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, has led the charge in promoting renewable energy sources to reduce the Corps’s reliance on fuel and electric generators.

Conway has set ambitious goals of cutting energy and water consumption not just at Marine bases but also in the expeditionary force. For deployed Marines, his goal is to reduce fuel usage by one-half by 2025. That means reducing current fuel usage — about eight gallons per day for every Marine in Helmand province — to four gallons, Charette said.

Increased reliance on solar and other renewable energy sources, as demonstrated by the Ex-FOB and other ground-renewable, expeditionary energy systems, or GREENS, are expected to go a long way in helping the Corps reach that goal, Charette said.

But he’s banking on about 25 percent of the energy savings coming from a cultural shift — what the Marine Corps calls its “ethos.”

“We want to equate combat effectiveness with resource effectiveness,” Charette said. “We don’t like to talk about demand reduction. We don’t want to talk about taking anything away.

“We want to talk about… mentally thinking about your resources — your liquid logistics,” he continued. “Your water, your fuel is as much a part of your combat effectiveness as combined arms are. It is part of your ethos.”

Less dependence on fuel and other logistical support saves money and energy. But Charette said it also means fewer vehicles on the road and fewer Marines putting their lives at risk maintaining the supply train.

He noted that four Marines with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment — the ones testing the Ex-FOB — died earlier this week driving the roads in Afghanistan.

“This is a real issue. Youngsters out there are risking their lives every day,” Charette said. “So we are going to keep after this. We are not going to quit. And I don’t see it ever changing.”

DoD
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

MORE:
Marines test alt energy in Morocco

Marine Green means solar power

Solar panels soak up rays and convert it to electricity while Marines with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, dig a hole at Combat Center Range 220 July 26. The Marines, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., are utilizing the panels to power radios, laptop computers, lighting, ventilation and other systems. Photo by Lance Cpl. Michael Nerl

Marines, long known as innovators, are using cutting-edge energy technology that promises to make them leaner, meaner and a whole lot greener during an Experimental Forward Operating Base exercise at the Combat Center July 22-29.

Experiments like EXFOB are part of Gen. James T. Conway, the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ vision to ensure the Corps remains the premier, self-sufficient expeditionary force.

Marines from Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., are the first military unit to use nothing but renewable energy to power their systems, as they take part in Enhanced Mojave Viper, a month-long combined arms pre-deployment training exercise, here.

The Marines used the Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy System, or GREENS, a portable power system developed for the Marine Corps which uses rechargeable batteries and solar panels to provide 300 watts of continuous electricity for Marines in remote locations and lessens the need for fuel resupply, reducing the associated threats to vehicle convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a Navy fact sheet.

“It’s going to make Marines more lethal because they will be able to move from one place to the other without having to wait for a logistics convoy to follow them around on the battlefield,” said Capt. Adorjan Ferenczy, an engineer officer at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. “As technology develops we may even be able to eliminate the use of fossil fuels on the battle field.”

Marines used other high tech gear, including more durable, lightweight, and user-friendly tents, energy efficient lighting systems, and >PowerShades, field shelters with embedded solar panels that provide one to two kilowatts of energy to power radios, laptop computers, lighting and ventilation systems.

Marines take a moment to relax and escape the brutal Mojave Desert heat under a PowerShade at Combat Center Range 220 July 26. PowerShade, is a field shelter with embedded solar panels that provide one to two kilowatts of energy to power radios, laptop computers, lighting and ventilation systems.

This technology offers more than agility and efficiency, said Ferenczy, a Detroit native.
“The majority of casualties in combat right now are from IEDs and Marines delivering supplies to the troops who need it,” he said. “By reducing the amount of fuel and water transportation, we can take vehicles off the road, which we believe will save Marine lives.”

During EXFOB, Company I ran their equipment on solar and battery power for more than 192 continuous hours. This led to a saving of approximately eight gallons of fuel per day, which would have been used to power generators and vehicles, Ferenczy said.

The low-levels of maintenance required to run the system has also been a substantial benefit as well, he said.

“These are very simple systems,” Ferenczy said. “You’re not always worried about doing preventative maintenance on a generator or vehicle to power the [command operation center].”

Sgt. Gregory Wenzel, an intelligence analyst with Company I, who has been on six deployments and has seen the many ways Marines use to power-up, said this expeditionary energy system is the best.

“As far as disadvantages, I really haven’t seen any,” said Wenzel, from Altoona, Pa. “You don’t need any fuel, it’s much quieter than a generator but can still power any electrical asset you need.”

First Lt. Stephen Cooney, the executive officer of the company, said he was in awe of the array of benefits the solar sources provided for his Marines.

“As far as benefits go at the company level it’s easy to see,” said the Sacramento, Calif., native. “You have virtually no issues with power, and you’re supplying everything internally.
“The Marines gain so much too from having the [PowerShade],” he said. “They have shelter during the day when they’re not training or operating and they have lights at night as well.”

Ferenczy said the technology is still being closely monitored and evaluated, but he added that after the testing is complete, 3rd Bn., 5th Marines, is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan with this new technology this fall.

DVIDS
Story by Lance Cpl. Michael Nerl