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The Solar Powered
Hill Airforce Base
The Hill AirForce Base in Utah has started harvesting energy from the sun via 1400 solar modules installed in the grounds to the west of the base. The solar panels generate enough power for about 25 homes, which is 220 kilowatts of electricity. There are plans to extend the solar array to four times its current size, bringing the array up to the 1 MW mark. This will make a significant dent in the base's power bill and reduce its dependence on other backup energy sources such as reserved oil.Energy SecurityThis is not the first US mainland base to employ solar panels to top up its energy supply. Last year the Nellis Airforce Base also started harvesting the sun's energy. This latest solar project shows that the Nellis solar construction was not an isolated event. Does this signal a move to the green side by the US military, or is it merely a move to reduce dependence on the oil reserve and foreign oil sources? The military is generally not interested in environmental matters nor is that their brief, so we can only conclude that this is a move to make the United States military consume less oil. Clearly the availability of oil is an issue, as is the need for ongoing energy security.
27 June 2009
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