Courtesy Photo | At Industry Day, Brian Dosa, director of Public Works, discusses the renewable solar...... read more read more
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By Christine Luciano, DPW Environmental
FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood is one step closer to bringing a large-scale renewable energy project that will save money and leverage sun and wind power for the post’s energy needs.
The Defense Logistics Agency, Energy, in coordination with the Office of Energy Initiatives and Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works is leading the effort to procure clean, secure and affordable energy.
“The OEI looks across all Army installations and energy markets for renewable energy opportunities,” said Kathy Ahsing, OEI director of Renewable Energy Programs. “A couple years ago, we developed a partnership with the DPW. From there evolved our desire to have solar and a need for onsite energy security.”
The OEI serves as the central management office for partnering with Army installations to develop and execute renewable energy projects, 10 megawatts or greater, leveraging private financing.
“The OEI has made a strong commitment to develop these large scale projects across Army installations,” Ahsing said. “This initiative is a component of our energy strategy to secure installations with a predictable and reliable supply of energy and meet our mission requirements in the long term.”
On Nov. 6, more than 50 representatives of the energy industry attended Fort Hood’s Industry Day and met with representatives from DPW, DLA Energy and OEI to discuss a renewable energy opportunity to build a solar photovoltaic facility at West Fort Hood.
“The Army identified an opportunity and released a request for proposals to industry to provide renewable energy here,” Ahsing said. “The discussion of today’s event is to clarify our solicitation, to identify specific areas industry needs to be aware of and field any questions they may have.”
The request for proposal outlines Fort Hood’s requirement for an on-post large-scale solar and off-post wind turbine facility.
“This project will save the Army more than $50 million in energy costs over the next 30 years,” said Brian Dosa, director of Public Works, “while also increasing our energy security, making us less dependent on the grid for our power.”
The Army will lease 265 acres at Fort Hood to a developer to build an on-site 40-megawatt solar PV facility. The solar PV facility will be financed, owned and operated by a third-party developer from the private sector. The Army will purchase the energy that is produced from the on-site solar PV facility along with off-site renewable wind energy for a price at or below projected utility rates.
The businesses from the energy industry learned about Fort Hood’s upcoming renewable energy project and also visited the proposed site for the solar PV facility and the Clarke and West Fort Hood substations for electrical transmission and distribution.
“This initiative will help the installation work towards net zero energy, while saving money and leveraging technology to reduce our usage here,” Dosa said. “This project is an opportunity to use less energy from the grid and generate more of the installation’s power from renewable resources.”
A notice of intent to award is expected to be announced in 2015. A groundbreaking at the installation is anticipated to take place in 2016, and the facility will be operational by 2017.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.14.2014 14:06 |
| Story ID: | 147902 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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