What Can We Do?
The Defense Department thinks we need to develop renewable energy sources and is funding programs to work on the problems.
McClatchy reports that the Pentagon is taking the lead on cutting back on fossil fuels and Danger Room ran a story on the effort in my area: Air Force Debuts Biofuel-Guzzling Warthog.
In addition to the biofuels, the military is using solar-powered water purification systems, and wants to use renewable methods of generating power for its bases. The military sees this as a national security problem – it costs the military hundreds of dollars per gallon to deliver fuel to the forces in Afghanistan to power generators and other equipment.
For almost a decade unit leaders have been requesting solar systems to generate power for small units in remote locations. Even if the systems do nothing other than charge the batteries for equipment, they are valuable. If the military understands the problem, consider how far behind the curve Congress is.
4 comments
Of course, the irony is that the Military want highly efficient renewable energy so they can wreak a lot more havoc on the environment! 😛 😆
Agent orange, daisy cutters, DU munitions, various NBC WMD’s, etc, etc! 😈
Most of the problems are the result of corporations selling something to the military after convincing the general staff that there are good jobs to be had in the private sector for those who appreciate the usefulness of those goods to the military.
At the company/squadron level you want stuff that works and doesn’t depend on hard supply lines to use. Generators attract trouble – solar panels don’t. If you are going to hand out equipment that requires power, front line units need their own power sources that don’t involve constant re-supply that tells the world where they are.
As we both know, the biggest problem the USA has had the past Century and has cost the USA wars, is logistics (for the most part. The other part are piss-poor weapons systems that are more dangerous to the operator(s) than the enemy). I’m surprised they haven’t designed field-portable factories for munitions yet! 😆 😉
The Aus military (esp ground troops) are trained to find and use all kinds of energy sources, from what many would consider the sublime to the ridiculous. 🙂 Depending on where we are going, most of the equipment are designed to use whatever power is available locally and is quite adaptable. Some troopers carry various adapters for comm’s systems or battery chargers and even collapsible solar panels. I once tested a thermal incline power generation kit. Was pretty *cool* actually and worked surprisingly well! We don’t take anything in battlefield conditions for granted. 🙂
One of the largest unmet needs in the US military is a single battery that works all of the equipment. Standardize on a voltage and shape of the battery and let them build the equipment around it. If they had done that, the rest of the stuff would fall into place.
When every piece of equipment use it’s own special battery pack the problems just multiply.
If one of the big defense contractors made this stuff, there wouldn’t be a problem, but as long as the needed products come from small consumer companies, you end up with a different size and type of battery for every piece of equipment, and a separate charger for those that are rechargeable. It’s FUBAR.
Hell, before the first Gulf War the Marines cleared out every camping store in San Diego county to get the stuff necessary to live in the desert. Individual Marines, because the stuff that was issued was worthless in the conditions. The Marines figured that out by training runs in the California desert.