Tag Archives: military
U.S Army Announces $7B in Renewable Energy Projects
The U.S. Army has just launched the first in a series of renewable energy contracts that will eventually total $7 billion by the end of this year, using power purchase agreements along with a standard procurement tool that is expected to crush any obstacles that are put in its path. That includes the notorious budget [...]
U.S Army Announces Biggest Solar Project Yet
While the US government signed a contract for its biggest wind farm, the US Army dedicated its biggest solar PV project, which is also the world’s largest low concentration photovoltaic solar plant. The 4.1 megawatt solar farm is operating at Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Combined with a 375 kilowatt solar carport, solar will still only supply [...]
Alta Devices: Changing Solar Strategy
In a marketplace with viciously plunging solar module costs, what strategy best serves a startup solar cell manufacturer? Well, if you’re Alta Devices, you stay away from rooftops and solar fields, at least for now, and go after military and portable markets — where efficiency is crucial and price-per-watt is much less important. Alta has [...]
The United States Army: Embracing Solar
Most people realize that a main benefit of using solar panels to generate energy is the ability to decentralize power production, but have you ever imagined what those implications could mean in an overseas defense scenario? A recent report states that U.S. soldiers have been utilizing solar power in the Afghanistan War for around two [...]
Edwards Air Force Base Tests HCPV Technology
The capabilities of high-concentration photovoltaics technology will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where a 200-kilowatt solar power field of this type is going to rise. The solar field will include a dozen commercial-scale dual-axis HCPV units manufactured by Semprius, Inc. of Durham North Carolina. The HCPV units will have the ability [...]
Ascent Solar Wins Phase 2 Air Force Award
The Air Force recently awarded Colorado-based Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. with a Phase 2 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award to help develop its next generation of flexible thin-film copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic devices. Under the award the company is developing new module designs that the Air Force will test. Ascent’s technology already passed the first [...]
U.S Navy Breaks Personal Record for Solar Installation
The US Navy has switched on its largest solar system so far, a 13.78-megawatt (MW) array in California that will help the agency shave an estimated $13 million off its power bill over the next two decades. The installation will generate about a third of the electricity at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. The Navy [...]
WOW: GM Loses $50K on Every Volt Produced
Despite selling a record number of Chevy Volts in August, General Motors is losing money on its plug-in electric hybrid, and a lot of money at that. Industry analysts estimate GM is losing as much as $49,000 on every Volt it produces. This number could be even higher with cheap leases now being offered for [...]
Romney + Ryan = RIP Clean Energy
Despite pledging to protect American employment, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney opposes critical clean energy policies that will encourage investment and create jobs on American soil. Gov. Romney wrote in a Columbus Dispatch op-ed that, “In place of real energy, Obama has focused on an imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and [...]