VIEW ORIGINAL
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany — U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria pivoted into 2022 with a more dedicated focus on energy and water conservation around its installations. This shift in priority comes after Army Materiel Command hosted its first-ever Energy and Utilities Summit on Dec. 15-16, 2021, at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.
During the summit, Gen. Edward Daly, commanding general of AMC, stated, “The operationalization of energy at installations is absolutely critical. We have to have resilient, hardened and modernized installations to project power and protect our force.”
At USAG Bavaria, energy manager Paul Hlawatsch is committed to expanding conservation efforts and improving the durability of the water and energy supply across all four installations.
“We’ve been increasing our measures to reduce the energy and water consumption and implementing renewable energy technology across USAG Bavaria long before this new focus from AMC,” Hlawatsch said. “Now, we are able to double down on making the installations more energy-efficient, work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensure our resources here are enduring.”
In 2020, USAG Bavaria received the Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Award for installing two combined heat and power plant units at the Hohenfels installation — which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 2,640 metric tons per year and saves over $1.2 million annually.
In addition to the newly installed power units, USAG Bavaria recently replaced over 1,800 streetlights and 36,000 lighting tubes across the footprint with energy-efficient LED lights. To minimize the amount of unnecessary lighting in administrative offices among the four installations, motion/infrared sensors were installed. And the new housing units on Rose Barracks were built with state-of-the-art cooling and heating technology, solar panels and STAR-rated appliances to reduce energy consumption.
But energy conservation on USAG Bavaria does not stop there. To meet the expectations laid out in President Biden’s Executive Order 14057, The Federal Sustainability Plan, USAG Bavaria aspires to trade its non-tactical fleet of gas-powered automobiles to electric-powered vehicles by 2035.
Hlawatsch and the USAG Bavaria Directorate of Public Works are already working to prepare the framework to support the incoming fleet of electric vehicles.
“We have installed roughly 75,000 square feet of roof-mounted solar panels,” Hlawatsch stated. “And we are already working with energy contractors to establish electric vehicle charging stations on our facilities.”
Going forward, USAG Bavaria will continue to have a significant focus on conserving energy and water.
Social Sharing