Navy Leads Nation

Navy Leads Nation Towards the Future of Solar Energy

In between mid-May and early October of this year, many facilities located on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base had solar hot water systems installed. The final inspection for this large project was held on October 3, 2011 and this particular project is projected to save $200,000 annually because of the changes made. The Department of Defense had made it possible for the Navy to pursue this project because it was agreed upon by the Energy Conservation Investments Program (ECIP) that this would greatly reduce cost and energy consumption. Navy Housing is switching to green technology, why not do the same on the base? There should be no question as to why this makes perfect sense to heat water using solar power.

Last year, during the month of June, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command received $2.2 million through the ECIP for their Pearl Harbor base. Six buildings received these new solar hot water systems, five of which are enlisted and officer quarters while the last facility is a gym. 6,120 sq. ft. of solar panels were installed by the Niking Corporation, which single handedly made this the largest project of this sort. The Navy expects the amount of paneling to power close to 440 homes which are located on the base. This number is significantly large considering that Hawaii, as a state, is not fossil fuel rich like some other states in the country. This amount of panels is capable of heating up 14,000 gallons of water a day and this project took about five months to complete.

On top of the six buildings that received new hot water systems, the contract allowed for a 100-kilowatt photovoltaic system to be added to one of the biggest and most energy consuming buildings located on the base. This thin film that has been installed will reduce this particular buildings demand for power on the grid by more than 150,000 kilowatt hours per year. It has been estimated that it will take about 11 years for the Department of Defense to receive all of its money back for the funding of this project, but again the estimated annual savings will be about $200,000.

In the year of 2009, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, had mapped out and suggested five major energy goals that will improve security and efficiency. In turn, this will ultimately increase the base’s independence of energy and be a milestone for the nation to rethink and go this same route. Another astonishing figure to look at is: because of the installation of these solar panels and photovoltaic film, over a 30 year span it is estimated that it will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions on this base by about 4,600 tons! That number is equivalent to planting 1,300 new trees, or removing about 1,000 cars that damage the ozone daily. This energy goal that has been presented by Secretary Mabus is expected to be carried out and completed by the year 2020 and the Department of the Navy will be responsible for producing about half of the on shore based energy requirements.

Clearly the Naval Base in Hawaii has taken the proper steps in leading the rest of our nation to be proactive in going green and becoming more sustainable as a country. We have the technology, we just need to follow through with the plans and get the word out about how much better for the world solar power is. This sort of sustainable living solution is not only available to the military and government; people can also use solar power in their homes and small businesses. Hopefully, more people will follow suite and the government will continue to back these types of projects.

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