A renewable GTMO

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Adrian Borunda | The $8.1 million project is part of the Public Works Office’s energy strategic plan, initiated in 2012, to look for and implement renewable energy sources and lessen GTMO’s dependence on fossil fuels by 42 percent by 2020.  

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA

11.25.2014

Story by Sgt. Adrian Borunda 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - The Naval Facilities Public Works Department on GTMO is working every day to help transform the way we use energy. A change currently being implemented is the construction of new solar panel arrays near the Naval Exchange which will lighten the load on the current fossil fuel generators.

The panels, expected to be complete by the end of December, will provide almost enough energy during sunlight hours – 700 kilowatts of energy per day, which roughly equates to 250,000 kilowatts a year – to make the NEX self-sufficient.

The $8.1 million project is part of the Public Works Office’s energy strategic plan, initiated in 2012, to look for and implement renewable energy sources and lessen GTMO’s dependence on fossil fuels by 42 percent by 2020.

“The best savings in energy is the dollar never spent,” said Lee Merrill, deputy public works officer. “We look for opportunities at some of our larger facilities, like the NEX, to tie in these large arrays.”

GTMO’s ever developing renewable energy projects, like solar panels, are also being used on the new LED street lights that replaced old high pressure sodium lights.

“The solar array behind the NEX also involved the replacement of 1,800 exterior lights around the base with more efficient LED lights,” Merrill said.

“Every Soldier, Sailor, Coast Guardsman, Marine and civilian here can also make a difference by turning off lights not in use, eliminating waste of fresh water and unplugging electronic devices not in use,” Merrill said.

The new solar array will be the largest here at GTMO but Mark Keels, the construction manager in charge of the solar project, believes this is just the beginning.

“It won’t be the biggest very long,” he said. “We will definitely build more and larger ones in the future.”

Keels said as GTMO and the rest of the DOD turns more and more toward renewable energy, he hopes to see all fossil fuel energy replaced with green energy.

“Ideally we would like to replace those diesel generators with solar panel arrays, so we gotta look at getting those bigger systems,” Keels said. “Solar panels are the way to go for this location.”

• Date Taken: 11.25.2014
• Date Posted: 11.25.2014 16:42
• Story ID: 148834
• Location: GUANTANAMO BAY, CU