SOLAR TODAY Blog

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY managing editor

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus last week announced that the Navy will reduce its fossil fuel use 50% by 2015. And by 2020, it expects to get 50% of all its energy from renewable sources.

This is a significant development. The Department of Defense accounts for about 2% of total U.S. oil consumption. About half of that goes to the Air Force, and about 75% of all DoD fuel goes to run vehicles (as opposed to heating and cooling buildings).

The Navy pushes its largest ships around with nuclear reactors, but it still burns a lot of diesel oil and jet fuel. The Marine Corps, officially on the Navy procurement budget, runs entirely on petroleum and testosterone.

Don't count on a return to the age of sail. The Navy plans to greatly expand its use of biofuels for aircraft, and improve the efficiency of heavy vehicles (including "littoral" or coastal vessels) through the use of diesel-electric hybrid drives. By 2016 it plans to have a "Great Green Fleet" battle group consisting of ships driven with no petroleum at all. (The name is a reference to the "Great White Fleet" dispatched by Teddy Roosevelt on a round-the-world tour in 1907-1909.)

The Navy will equip many bases with solar, wind, geothermal and tidal power generation facilities - as much for independence from the civilian grid as for carbon footprint reduction. It's conceivable that the Navy could become the technology leader in tidal-current power development.

The emphasis on biofuels is fascinating. Ethanol derived from corn or sugar is useless in formulating a substitute for Jet A and diesel fuel. Those concoctions currently come largely from canola oil. You may have reservations about competing with the Navy for salad dressing, but it sure beats boiling tar sands.

Another issue raised by Sec. Mabus: The Navy is worried about its future role in securing an ice-free Arctic Ocean. I wonder what it's planning to do for shore bases when  existing seaports have been submerged by two meters of sea-level rise?