Wind Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense

The Department of Defense (DoD) consumed approximately 211,000 billion British thermal units (BBTU) of energy during FY2010. This accounts for approximately 80 percent of all Federal energy consumption and cost about $15.2 billion. Seventy four percent of this energy consumption can be attributed to operations while the remaining 26 percent was consumed by the Department’s facilities.

The DoD has 507 permanent installations, which comprise more than 300,000 buildings and 200,000 other structures. These installations include over 2.2 billion square feet of space. Facilities energy has a significant environmental impact, contributing about 40 percent of DoD total greenhouse gas emissions. The DoD is also heavily dependent on commercial electricity grids. The fragility of these grids leaves DoD vulnerable to service disruptions and places continuity of critical missions at serious and growing risk.

To address these issues, the DoD is investing heavily in clean energy technologies that reduce and manage energy demand, improve energy efficiency in buildings, increase energy supplied by renewable and alternative sources, and enhance energy security to reduce risks.

Their goal is for certain facilities to achieve net zero energy, in addition to producing 17,000 BBTUs of renewable energy. In assessment of renewable energy potential at its installations, the DoD identified over 33,000 BBTUs of renewable energy project potential, approximately one third of which is from wind energy.

DoD Estimate Of Renewable Energy Production Potential

http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/energy/library/aemr_fy_09_may_2010.pdf