Solar Field Ribbon Cutting Brings Community Together

By Natalie LakosilFebruary 12, 2015

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1 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Col. Thomas A. Boone, Garrison Commander, Fort Huachuca, Amanda Simpson, executive director, Army Office of Energy Initiatives, Maj. Gen. John B. Morrison, Jr., Commanding Gen. U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command and Deputy Commanding Gen... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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In an endeavor towards sustainability, a ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Wednesday showcasing 57,420 solar panels that have begun providing renewable energy on Fort Huachuca.

The sun beamed down brightly as Maj. Gen. John B. Morrison, Jr., Commanding Gen. U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command and Deputy Commanding Gen. U.S. Army Cyber Command welcomed the crowd. The ceremony took place outside the Thunder Mountain Activity Center, with the solar array creating the backdrop.

Morrison was elated to be a part of unveiling the Department of Defense's largest renewable solar array. "Just as Fort Huachuca accomplished net zero in water consumption over a dozen years ago, this solar array park demonstrates a continued commitment to be good environmental stewards," he said.

"The solar panel array facility happened because public and private sectors at all levels came together to create a better future. All while ensuring our Army has the energy resources it needs to accomplish its missions in support of our nation."

The public and private sectors Morrison is referring to, is the partnership that helped create this project. The United States Army, Tucson Electric Power, Army Office of Energy Initiatives, General Services Administration and E.ON Solar all played a significant roll in constructing the solar park.

"Arizona really has a commitment to renewable energy and to ensuring that we're conservatively managing our resources so that future generations like these students here have the same access to resources as generations do today," said Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment.

The students she was referring to were Col. Smith Middle School students from LeeAnn Howell's, seventh grade honors science class. They are currently studying energy conservation and were invited to the ceremony. "It is important to get them to focus on real world application. These are the generations that will make a difference and it is good for them to see in person," Howell said.

The newly installed solar panels are phase one of what is a three phase project. The panels began producing energy for the fort in January being the first full month of operation. The panels generated 1,354 megawatt hours, which is equivalent to 14 percent of this bases requirements, Hammack told the audience.

"I understand that January was cold and maybe a bit inclement and rainy but even so it produced energy. More would have been produced if it were bright and sunny like it is today," she added looking toward the bright sky.

"Energy security under rides our unique ability to rapidly deploy, employ and sustain military forces around the globe. But the project here, this large project, when complete with both phases is scheduled to provide 25 percent of the energy needs of this base annually," Hammack said.

The solar panel array took 18 months to create with ground breaking taking place roughly nine months ago.

"The renewable solar project was completed and operational in just over a year and a half from the first conversations we had with the Army. That's incredible, no matter who you are talking about in this industry, putting a solar facility together in that short of time is absolutely amazing," said David Hutchens, President and Chief Executive Officer UNS Energy and Tucson Electric Power.

Fort Huachuca hosts ideal land for such a large solar structure. With limited obstructions and fairly flat areas, spanning miles wide, it became home to not only the largest solar array currently in the DOD but also the first to be built with private sector funding in the DOD.

"Instead of investing tax payer dollars out of the defense budget to provide this power, it's a true partnership with the utility where it helps the utility in the fact that it reduces some of the stress and strain on power lines that come to the base by producing power closer to the point of use and that's distributed energy and distributed energy that a lot of utilities have talked about but the problem usually is finding land," Hammack said.

"We are modeling the success of this program and applying lessons learned here for many other renewable energy projects on other bases around the United States," Hammack added.

The entire federal government facilities and DOD consume 78 percent of the energy of the federal government. For the DOD share of that the Army uses 35 percent, making Army facilitates the largest single energy consumers in the DOD. In financial terms for the Army last year alone that meant costs of 1.3 billion dollars, Hammack told the crowd.

The Army made a commitment to the President of the United States, stating that it would deploy one gigawatt of renewable energy by 2025, which is enough energy to power 750,000 homes.

"We feel this is our responsibility as the DOD to be examples to other communities but it also our responsibility to national security. The Fort Huachuca renewable energy project is unique because it is the first large scale project in the Army and it's the result of very innovative partnering between the Army and Tucson Electric Power and the General Services Administration," Hammack said.

"The GSA had to work to adapt their area wide contract to meet this unique scenario but also TEP, who has a 70-year relationship here with the fort had willingness to try new contract mechanism and to work together in a collaborative environment to insure this project was successful. By working together we can ensure a sustainable world for future generations," she concluded.

Executive Director of the Army Office of Energy Initiatives, Amanda Simpson, called the day a celebration. "I had no doubt that you would bring this project home, teaming with the private sector isn't really anything new for the Army, after all we've been partnering with industries for nearly 240 years. The difference is instead of making tanks and bullets our industry partners are producing clean, secure and affordable renewable energy," she told the audience.

The Fort Huachuca project might be the first large scale project for the Army's, but 24 large scale renewable energy generation opportunities are either under construction or in some stage of development as of now.

"Having micro grids or small grids that are able to distribute power to sectors and they are interlinked is the second phase," Hammack said. The second phase of the project will include installing more panels for the fort to produce 20 megawatts of alternating current.

Currently the phase one is producing approximately 17 to 18 megawatts. The amount of panels and size is still unknown at this time. TEP will not be using the same technology during phase two as phase one, said Carmine Tilghman, senior director, wholesale, fuels, and renewable resources.

Instead the company will be utilizing two different technologies side by side.

"We have a couple more hurdles to finish before we start that. I haven't even had a chance to talk to Amanda [Simpson], we did elude to we want to bring a micro storage grid down here as well, which is our next significant phase as a company and our preferred partner at least to start that would be the Army, to provide that service down here," Tilghman said.

"The third phase is energy storage and you can do energy storage through stationary storage. That could be a large building that houses a lot of batteries or mobile storage which could be electric vehicles, that when they plug in they are able to take some of the excess power and at night feed it back into the grid. So that's one of the things we are looking at and we are doing some testing," Hammack said.

"If you take this in totality this kind of shows you the legacy that Fort Huachuca and the Army's commitment on a stewardship, whether it be water or whether it be power and you combine that with the partnerships and I know that's come up but whether that become water conservation or power conservation we're talking decades of work, man hours and partnerships that kind of get shown in a shiny moment of the solar field. But really it's a collection of small steps," said Garrison Commander Col. Thomas A. Boone.

The solar array is the same cost as the Army was paying for energy before. The price of the solar panels has come down significantly in the last ten years and has made renewable energy much more cost effective.

The solar panels from phase one are expected to last at least 20 years. With technology always advancing the panels could last even longer.