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Top Tech: Solar Blankets

Filed under Energy, Top Technology by jtozer on May 7, 2013 at 7:33 am {no comments}

The Top Tech series highlights the latest and greatest federal laboratory inventions that are available for transfer to business partners. Want to suggest an invention? Email us at science@dma.mil.

Flexible solar blanket of aSi solar cells. (photo provided by the Naval Research Laboratory)

Technology: High Power Flexible Solar Blankets

Agency: Naval Research Laboratory

What is better than a warm blanket on a cold night? How about a blanket that can produce energy by soaking up rays from the sun? We’re talking about the Naval Research Laboratory’s high power flexible solar blankets (or Blanket 2.0 I like to call it). The common comforter is getting an upgrade.

What is it?

It’s like a blanket on solar steroids. NRL is developing photovoltaics (solar cells) that combine high power output with lightweight and flexibility. It works by using crystalline, high efficiency multi-junction solar cells, which are lifted off the growth substrate and laid down onto a lightweight, flexible blankets. This forms a blanket with potentially three TIMES the power output of current technologies.

What does that mean?

This is, essentially, how we create portable solar panels.

Think about some of the advantages this blanket can have, starting with convenience. Being able to transport a regenerating power source that doesn’t weigh a ton is awesome. Also, given the particular environment with which troops tend to find themselves, using the natural resource of the sun just makes sense. It’s also eco-friendly, which means these blankets are in keeping with the Department of Defense’s going green initiative. They’re also more cost effective, since they’re designed to be used over and over again and they can recharge equipment in the field.

Truthfully, people in general could benefit from this technology. (more…)

The ‘Green’ Military Installation Of The Future

Filed under Energy by jtozer on April 16, 2013 at 7:02 am {no comments}

Army and sustainability?

Solar panel arrays form a canopy at a construction site in Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., March 12, 2013. The construction site is for phase 1 and 2 of a solar microgrid project at the installation, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District. (Photo by John R. Prettyman, USACE)

Using those two words in the same sentence several years ago would have probably been considered the punch line to a joke.

But today, a military base that is both environmentally friendly and meets the needs of warfighters, is quickly becoming a reality.

Fort Hunter Liggett, with nearly 162,000 acres of forest, mountains and rivers, is located in Monterey County, Calif., and is one of several U.S. Army pilot installations selected to be net zero energy and net zero waste by 2020.

This means the installation will create as much energy as it uses, and reuse and recover all of its waste products.

“The net zero initiative is going to provide energy security for this installation and it’s also a priority for the Army,” said Col. Donna Williams, garrison commander for Fort Hunter Liggett.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading the way in managing construction on major energy projects at Fort Hunter Liggett and is nearing completion on the second phase of four solar microgrids.

“Phase one of the solar project was completed last year and it’s generating one megawatt of power. Phase two is going to add another one megawatt of power,” said Bob Roy, project engineer with the Corps’ Sacramento District.

One megawatt is enough energy to power up to 300 homes.

(more…)

Air Force Pilots Going Paperless

Filed under Technology by jtozer on March 29, 2013 at 7:42 am {no comments}

The Air Force loves technology. It makes planes fly faster and higher, bombs more accurate and deadly and its airmen the most advanced of any air and space force on the planet.

An Air Force aircrew member holds an iPad that will replace bulky manuals, charts and other references they used to take with them during missions. Air Mobility Command officials recently signed a $9.36 million contract to buy as many as 18,000 iPads for use by pilots, navigators and trainers as part of a new Electronic Flight Bag program. (U.S. Air Force photo illustration/Val Gempis)

Now, technology is also helping Air Mobility Command aircrews go green, save time and money.

A new Electronic Flight Bag program is aiming to replace the current flight bags, which are full of bulky manuals, charts and other reference materials, with small, lightweight tablets. To accomplish this, AMC officials recently signed a $9.36-million contract to buy as many as 18,000 iPads for use by pilots, navigators and trainers.

“We currently use two flight bags that each weigh anywhere from 60 to 80 pounds,” said Capt. Rob Lundy, a C-17 pilot with the 3rd Airlift Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, Del. “Now, using these tablets, all of this information is in the palm of our hand.”

(more…)

DOD Electric Vehicles Will Supply Power to Local Grids

Filed under Energy by jtozer on January 23, 2013 at 7:48 am {no comments}

As the military continues to move away from dependence on fossil fuels, the Defense Department plans to spend $20 million on a fleet of electric vehicles unique in their ability to export their own power and offset their cost.

Camron Gorguinpour, special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics, said the department expects to lease as many as 500 electric vehicles at six different installations beginning later this year.

All will be modified versions of electric vehicles already on the market with costs ranging from $30,000 to $100,000.

“What we have identified is a path forward that will allow us to bring electric vehicles into our fleet that are less costly than conventional vehicles,” he said.

The Air Force has the lead on the project, which envisions Los Angeles Air Force Base becoming the first federal facility to replace everything from passenger sedans to shuttle buses with electric versions.

(more…)

Soldiers Using Sunlight To Improve Combat Capability

Filed under Energy, STEM by jtozer on December 4, 2012 at 7:42 am {no comments}

A SunDial 28.2-kilowatt solar generator is in use in Afghanistan. In addition to being used by Special Forces Soldiers in Afghanistan, these systems have been deployed for oil companies, railroads, mining companies and a number of non-governmental organizations. (Photo used with permission of SunDial Capital Partners)

Soldiers are enlisting the sun’s power in Afghanistan.

Ten solar generators are now providing Special Forces soldiers in distant outposts the energy they need to accomplish their mission. And, these generators are allowing them precious more time to train Afghan forces and win the friendship of local Afghans.

The key benefit of solar is savings in fuel. Fuel makes up a significant portion of weight and volume that has to be transported great distances to remote locations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“During World War II, we used (an average of) one gallon of fuel per day, per soldier,” said Richard G. Kidd IV, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Energy & Sustainability, with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment. “We now use (an average of) 20 gallons per day, per soldier, and in Afghanistan, over 40 percent of that fuel is used to produce electricity.

“With solar power, we are cutting the supply of fuel needed in half, from 40 to 20 percent,” he added. That is the first of at least five benefits, he said.

(more…)

Polluting Space – Scientists Discover CO2 In The Upper Atmosphere

Filed under Space by jtozer on November 16, 2012 at 7:35 am {no comments}

The figure depicts the ACE satellite observing the sun through Earth’s atmosphere. (Photo: ACE website, University of Waterloo)

Oh great. So we’re polluting space now. Does this remind anyone else of that Wall-E reality that seemed so scary?

Yeah, me too.

A team of scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory, Old Dominion University, and the University of Waterloo reports the first direct evidence that emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) caused by human activity are propagating upward to the highest regions of the atmosphere.

The observed CO₂ increase is expected to gradually result in a cooler, more contracted upper atmosphere and a consequent reduction in the atmospheric drag experienced by satellites. The team published its findings in Nature Geoscience on November 11, 2012 (10.1038/NGEO1626).

The team of Dr. John Emmert, Dr. Michael Stevens, and Dr. Douglas Drob from NRL’s Space Science Division; Dr. Peter Bernath from Old Dominion University; and Dr. Chris Boone from the University of Waterloo in Canada studied eight years of CO₂ measurements made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), a scientific satellite mission funded primarily by the Canadian Space Agency.

ACE determines vertical profiles of CO₂ and many other atmospheric gases by measuring how the atmosphere absorbs sunlight at different wavelengths as the Sun rises and sets relative to the spacecraft. (more…)

Looking to a Greener Future

Filed under Technology, Videos by jtozer on November 11, 2012 at 7:39 am {no comments}

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy & Environment, Katherine Hammack, recently visited military installations in Europe.

“The Army in Europe has really made an investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy,” says the Honorable Katherine Hammack. So how are they doing that you ask?

I’ll give you a hint: it sounds a lot like rolar banels.

Video provided by IMCOM’s YouTube Channel

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Lean, Mean GREENS Machine of the Corps

Filed under Energy, STEM by jtozer on October 26, 2012 at 7:36 am {one comment}

A new solar-powered energy distribution system is being tested near Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, Calif., by Marines of Bravo Battery 1-10, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Uriel Avendano)

To increase the daily productivity of missions in remote locations and decrease the warfighters dependence on traditional energy sources, the Corps has developed the first generation of Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy Network Systems (GREENS).

This solar-powered energy distribution system is being tested near Marine Corps Air Station Yuma on the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, Calif., by Marines of Bravo Battery 1-10, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. as a part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course

Instead of using a fuel-powered generator or motor, these Marines are setting up photo-voltaic solar panels to provide the sustained energy needed to fire artillery down range.

The GREENS components, working in conjunction with one another, deliver a continuous and reliable power source to Marines in the field.

The concept of this particular renewable technology dates as far back as 2006, but didn’t get a jump start until 2009.

“2009 was when the expeditionary energy and strategic implementation plan was first conceived and developed. 2010 was when the expeditionary energy office stood up under the direct guidance of the commandant. We’ve been doing expeditionary energy and evaluation ever since,” said Maj. Anthony McNair, requirements and technologies team member for the USMC Expeditionary Energy Office Headquarters.

(more…)