The military has put its stamp of approval on cleantech and is now increasing its efforts to fund and promote the use of clean power, biofuels and energy efficiency products and services.
The department uses 80 percent of the energy consumed by the federal government and recognised the need to change the military to greener and cleaner fuel. The Navy has joined forces with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture to help fundbiofuel plants that willtransformfeedstocks into fuels that can be combinedwith or replace existing jet and diesel fuels.
The Navy will focus on energy storage by developing energy storage systems that will provide long-lasting power supply. Both the Navy and the Army aim to become more energy efficient and the Army want to use 25 percent renewable energy for electricity supply by 2025. John McHugh, the Army Secretary recently said in a press conference that the Army wants to see more solar and wind power installed at its bases. McHugh opined that the recent criticism by project developers over the bureaucratic process for selling the Army green technology could be solved by setting up a task force to simplifythe procurement process.
The largest renewable energy buyer in 2006, the Air Force has solid plans in place to increase the use of biofuels that will cut energy use and reliance on fossil fuels. The defence department has been in lead when it comes to cutting-edge technologies using funding from its DARPA program. The department requested proposals to build energy storage systems to make the base more self-sufficient with uninterrupted power supply.
The Military has been moving towards cleantech for several years and some of the projects include a $730,441 contract to develop lithium-ion battery systems for tanks and armoured vehicles, algae fuel from Solazyme, and $1.48 million of contracts to design systems that will generate electricity from waste heat.
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