Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Shane Arrington | Dan Wright, an engineering technician for Naval Facilities Engineering Command...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — From the wind turbines dotting the ridgeline, to the water and power plant below, U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a standing tradition of keeping the base green.
"The regional Naval Facilities Engineering Command and the Navy in general have a strong focus on conserving energy," said Navy Lt. j.g Jonathon Charfauros, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's energy manger and assistant public works manager. "There are many things providing guidelines on this issue. There are presidential mandates, the 2007 Engineering Professional Advisory Committee and the reduction requirements of 30 percent in energy consumption by 2015 set across the Navy."
The Naval Station has recently kicked off a building energy monitor program which, according to Charfauros, puts someone who knows about energy, and knows what they're looking for, into every facility. This person is responsible for going through their spaces and finding leaks in all the heating, ventilating and air conditioning units.
In fiscal year 2009, Joint Task Force Guantanamo alone consumed 35,055.3 Megawatts per hour of electricity in its mission of providing safe and humane care and custody of detainees. With the non-renewable resources we've used to produce our energy dwindling, it becomes ever more important for places that produce so much energy, such as U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, to continue to introduce and expand existing conservation programs.
"We already have some alternative energy sources, the main one being the turbines providing wind power," said Charfauros. "And for fiscal year 2010, we're going to start designing an incineration plant that takes all the garbage that goes to our landfill, burns it, and turns that into energy. Another project we have in place involves the base's perimeter lighting. Ten percent of our energy cost goes into lighting the fence line at night and by replacing some of the lights with solar powered lights we'll probably reduce that by a fifth."
While the naval station does its job of staying green on the grand scale, Michael McCord, U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's environmental director, says it's just as important for individuals to do their part as well.
"People sometimes miss the big picture when it comes to energy conservation," McCord said. "If [we] turn the light off or save some water, the downstream effect of not wastefully using these resources is that we reduce the impact on the fuel system as a whole."
"We burn diesel fuel to produce energy, that energy is used in the reverse osmosis systems to create the water we drink, clean our clothes, cook and water our lawns with. So every drop of water [we] save is a drop of oil that's not being consumed to produce the electricity used to make the water."
And the less fuel we burn, the less fuel that has to cross the ocean, reducing chances for oil spills. Less fuel burned also cuts down on air admissions, making our air and water cleaner. McCord says not only is this important for the service members and their families stationed at Guantanamo, but also the protected plants and wildlife they share the base with.
For more information about Joint Task Force Guantanamo, visit the Web site at www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil.
| Date Taken: | 10.30.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2009 14:50 |
| Story ID: | 41480 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 216 |
| Downloads: | 158 |
This work, JTF Guantanamo's Green Energy, by PO2 Shane Arrington, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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