When Paul Bollinger took his post in April, the job description included responsibility for alternative-energy efforts on U.S. Army installations. But Bollinger has since expanded his energy portfolio.
He helped construct the Army's ambitious energy plan, which was formally unveiled in October at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual convention in Washington. The plan calls for the purchase of thousands of electric cars for Army installations and the construction of new solar and geothermal energy plants.
Before taking the job, which is placed in the office of the Army's assistant secretary for installations and environment, Bollinger served as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics, where he managed alternative fuels programs. Later, he helped create the U.S. government's Interagency Working Group on Alternative Fuels.
Bollinger also serves as the Department of Defense official representative on the Strategic Unconventional Fuels Task Force, and was the DoD representative on the Western Governors' Association Coal to Liquids Task Force and the Environmental Protection Agency's Advanced Coal Technology Working Group.
A. The Neighborhood Electric Vehicle will be at Fort Belvoir, [Va.,] before Dec. 15. Our goal is to have the Secretary [of the Army, Pete Geren] there to drive in one of the first ones.
They are U.S.-made by golf cart companies. They are street-legal vehicles that will be sedans and light trucks. Our order will be for 800 of them this year.
The good news is that the Air Force and Navy have come to us and said that they want to piggyback on the order. Previously, the Air Force was looking at low-speed vehicles which are actually still gasoline vehicles. We've skipped that and we are going straight to electric. We are eliminating the fuel issue, period.
There are 800 of them to be delivered through fiscal year 2009. We are adding to that a total of 4,000 vehicles in the next three years. That is just the Army. At minimum, we should be able to go to at least 10,000 vehicles overall.
A. The electric cars will save 11.5 million gallons of fuel per year.
We've called one of the automobile manufacturers to let them know what our order is going to be just to say, "we don't know what your plans are." Chevy is looking at making the Volt, a street vehicle [electric car] that will go highway speeds. We don't need that because the speed limit on our installation is 30 miles per hour. We don't need something that big or expensive, but we might need something that powerful, so in the future, if they are able to make it, that is great.
A. Today's NEV's use the standard lead-acid batteries, it is my understanding that lithium batteries are the future.
Some of the cars are made by golf cart-maker E-Z-Go. We are having bumper stickers put on and decals on the doors which say "Army Green, Army Strong."
As for the cost for the vehicles, they are typically leased through the GSA [Government Service Administration]. However, with this initial order expect to contract with Native American Bio Fuels International, Inc. through a Small Business Agreement (SBA) 8(a) Program set aside. We will not be paying anymore for the NEV than for a standard gasoline powered vehicle.
A. It is the secretary's intention to be a market initiator. We are not going to buy enough to be a market maker, but we can be a market initiator. There's a difference.
If we buy 10,000 of these vehicles, piggyback that with perhaps 10,000 by the Air Force and 10,000 for the Navy, that is 30,000 vehicles. Automobile manufactures can then decide if there is a market for these. We have at least created the market to get something started.
A. We're writing the RFQ, a request for qualification, right now. We anticipate this being on the street in January 2009.
We have 1,300 acres of land called Red Lake at Fort Irwin [in California]. It is very flat. In addition, we have land near the entrance to the installation, where we would like another 50 megawatts of power generation. There's also 20,000 acres owned by NASA adjoining the installation. NASA wants to team with the Army to build solar energy there.
The Red Lake area is immediately adjoining the power lines. That is critical to getting the power from the facility and onto the grid. In this case, they go directly to Los Angeles.
A. When we go and build a 500-megawatt concentrated solar array at Fort Irwin, that handles power during the day. We are looking at technology that heats up molten salt. That heat and that power is what you use at night to provide power when the sun is down to produce additional electricity.
I can vouch for what it does because I was just at Sandia National Laboratory [in California], and they have from the late '70s, when our country was into renewable energy back then, mirrors on panels focused on a tower. On that tower, they were putting a NASA wing up there. They don't keep the light focused on the tower because it would burn the tower. The beam is identical to the sun. In the administrative building, they had an 8-inch-thick steel plate with a hole burned in the middle, and they said that this hole was burned in 20 seconds by the solar panels. They also had the mirror focused on a point far away. The light from the reflectors went into the engine and generator, heated it and caused the engine to operate. It was just from the sunlight going into a hole in the back of a generator, which turned light and heat into power for the generator.
A. We drove the test holes last week in Hawthorne, Nev. Those holes cost $2.5 million to drill. What we are going to do is work with the town of Hawthorne. They are dependent on the Army depot. It is a remote location.
The city had drilled a well as well. The energy can help with our town. Drilling is taking off because of oil and gas. The neat thing is the Seabees from the Navy are now getting into drilling, because they need to drill and have that expertise for other work that they do. They are developing a Seabee corps to do geothermal drilling for the future.
A. Geothermal drills go down anywhere from 2,000 feet to potentially 10,000 feet. Then, equipment takes water that is essentially 300 degrees and brings it up to the surface. The heat turns to steam when it comes to the surface. It turns generators, and the generators produce electricity. It is not that complicated.
I've been to China Lake, which is the largest [geothermal plant] in the country. They produce 200 megawatts of power from that plant, and they generate $12 million a year in revenue.
A. I toured a waste-to-energy plant that is here in Alexandria, [Va.]. It takes all the waste out of Alexandria and produces 13 megawatts of power. They burn the garbage, and the fire creates heat. They put water in it, and it creates steam. The steam turns the turbine generators. They use natural gas to start the fire, and they keep putting the garbage in and burning it. They have scrubbers and greenhouse gas filters. We are looking to talk to them about waste to energy.
Most of our installations do not produce enough waste for this process, so we are looking to have partnerships with communities. This would provide energy back to the community and without putting waste into a landfill. ■
By Kris Osborn.
The U.S. Army's plan to reduce the amount of energy used on bases and in the field includes several initiatives, including:
■ SOLAR POWER PLANT
Location: Fort Irwin, Calif.
Mission: Produce 125 megawatts of electricity beginning in 2014
Savings: $21 million
■ ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Location: U.S. bases
Mission: Buy 4,000 battery-powered cars and light trucks by 2010
Savings: $45.8 million over six years
■ GEOTHERMAL PLANT
Location: Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada
Mission: Produce 30 megawatts of electricity
Savings: $13 million over 25 years
Source: U.S. Army
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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