A new military renewable energy site is under development in California, it emerged on October 15th 2009.  The solar farm will be sited at Fort Irwin and, when complete, will have an initial 500 MW capacity, with the potential for further growth in future years.  It is being developed through a collaboration involving external contractors Clark Energy Group and Acciona Solar Power, along with the US Army themselves.

Fort Irwin is located in the Mojave Desert, and is the US Army’s most substantial training facility in that part of the world.  Harnessable solar energy is present in abundance and, on this basis, the facility’s power output could be expanded to as much as 1 GW in coming years.  The anticipated cost of the project is as much as $2 billion, an amount to be financed by the two external firms within a deal that includes a land-lease feature. 

US Army Energy Use

US Army energy use is required to have reduced by around 30 per cent within six years. Furthermore, the US Army needs to have ensured that renewable energy sources are providing 25 per cent of all its energy by the year 2025.  Both aims have been mandated at federal level. 

The largest solar facility currently active within the US military is located at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base – the home of the USAF Thunderbirds demonstration tem – but the Fort Irwin site will soon take its crown (the Nellis site’s capacity is 14 megawatts).   The new site will incorporate both photovoltaic technologies (which convert sunlight directly into electricity) and solar thermal technologies (which use mirrors to heat up water).  

Solar Thermal Technologies: Mojave Desert

In this way – according to a representative of one of the companies participating in the venture – it will capitalise on the ease of installation and low-cost benefits associated with solar thermal technologies.

Fort Irwin’s maximum electricity consumption stands at about 28 MW, according to US Army energy executive Jerry Hansen.  With this in mind, superfluous energy produced above and beyond the site’s needs could be syndicated out to energy firms.