U.S. military kicks more ass by using less fossil-fuel energy

0

To understand the promise of renewable energy for the U.S. military,
it helps to start as far from Washington, D.C., as possible. (This is
true for most forms of understanding.) Start far from the politicians,
even from the military brass, far from the rooms where big-money
decisions are made, far out on the leading edge of the conflict, with a
small company of Marines in Afghanistan’s Sangin River Valley.

Not long ago, for a three-day mission out of a forward operating base
in Afghanistan, each Marine would have humped between 20 and 35 pounds
of batteries. One of the reasons Marines are so lethal in such small
numbers today is that they are constantly connected by radios and
computers. But radios and computers require a constant supply of
batteries, brought by convoy over some of the deadliest roads on earth
and then piled on the backs of Marines in highly kinetic environments.

In late 2010, India Company, from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment, tried something new. They packed Solar Portable Alternative
Communications Energy Systems, or SPACES — flexible solar panels, 64
square inches, that weigh about 2.5 pounds each. One 1st Lieutenant from
India 3/5 later boasted that his patrol shed 700 pounds.

Read more…