Fort Carson on track toward 2020 energy independence

Feb 02 - The Gazette, Colo.

Fort Carson appears on track to be off the grid by 2020, Army officials said Wednesday.

Fort Carson generates 3.5 percent of the energy used on post -- enough to be on track to be "net zero" in eight years as part of a pilot program for bases to provide for their own water and electricity needs, Army officials said.

There's a nation-wide push by the Army to become independent of outside energy sources, beginning with Fort Carson and Fort Bliss, Texas. President Barack Obama recently touted military energy independence measures during a trip to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.

"It's primarily because we must build resilience," Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said in a teleconference Wednesday. "If we do not have energy and water when and where we need it, it can lead to mission failure.

"Fort Carson is an example of how to do it right."

While its energy footprint might have grown in recent years -- the post has expanded from 8-million to 12.5-million square feet -- the amount of energy it consumes per square foot since 2003 has dropped 13.4 percent, military officials said.

The post gets about 15.5 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Twelve percent comes from purchased hydroelectric power, which does not count towards the "net zero" goal because it is not generated on post.

The rest comes from solar energy gleaned on site. A 2-megawatt solar array installed in 2007 provides most of that, with the remainder coming from newly constructed arrays, including some on top of buildings and carports.

Officials are looking into wind power, though no facilities have been built.

Fort Carson also has reduced water usage per square foot by 47 percent since 2003.

Elsewhere in the nation, military spending on private-sector clean energy has skyrocketed.

The Army approved $93 million in private-sector grants for clean energy projects in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, more than all of fiscal year 2011, when the Army approved $73 million in such grants, Hammack said.

The initiative comes as the Army plans to reduce personnel following the end of the Iraq War and the planned withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan by 2014. Military leaders have said they are discussing base realignments or closures, though no details have been announced.

Hammack said the Army is prepared to buy out clean energy contracts if they become obsolete under any realignment plans.

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