Number of US Military Renewable Energy Projects Has Greatly Upped

Yesterday, independent non-profit and non-governmental organization Pew Charitable Trusts released a new report saying that, from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2012, the United States military made great progress towards improving on its ecological footprint.

The report explains that, during said time frame, the number of energy saving and efficiency projects targeting military installations increased by over 50%.

Specifically, the overall count for such projects increased from 630 to 1,339, Pew Charitable Trusts writes on its website.

Furthermore, it would appear that the United States military also took a liking to renewable energy projects. Consequently, their number upped from 454 to 700 during said time frame.

“These improvements are possible even as the Pentagon’s budget is shrinking because the armed services are harnessing private-sector expertise and resources,” says Phyllis Cuttino with the organization.

“This is a win-win-win proposition: The military gets better energy infrastructure, taxpayer dollars are saved, and the clean energy industry is finding new market opportunities,” he adds.

Pew Charitable Trusts goes on to detail that, each year, the military spends some $4 billion (€2.93 billion) on the electricity needed to keep all of its bases and facilities up and running.

The group argues that, thanks to the energy efficient and renewable technologies it has implemented over the past 10 years, it has managed to save millions of dollars in power costs.

By the looks of it, the Pentagon’s installations across the country had come to sport 384 megawatts of installed renewable energy capacity by mid-2013. Until the end of the year 2018, this capacity has high chances to up to roughly 2.1 gigawatts.

This leads specialists working with the Pew Charitable Trust to believe that, by 2025, the United States military will manage to meet its goal of setting 3 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in place.

According to information at hand, most of this added capacity will come from solar and biomass.