The US military and renewable energy

Portable solar energy unit carried by backpack

Environmentalists, various supporters of renewable energy uptake and practitioners of sustainable development would most likely be surprised to know that one of the largest investors in renewable energy sources is the United States military. While the world debates the merits and virtues of the Kyoto Protocol, Kyoto II and renewable energy targets in general, the US Department of Defence has set a goal of supplying 25% of the military's energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2025 with the US navy setting a much more ambitious goal of  50% renewable energy by 2020. These ambitious targets are not surprising in one sense as the US military is the 35th largest consumer of oil in the world with a daily consumption of 45 million litres of crude. In 2010, a portable 300-watt solar panel system called GREENS was demonstrated and small flexible panels for individual soldiers backpacks to power personal equipment were also released. There are over 600 soldiers carrying these personal devices and 100 GREENS panels have been deployed.

The Pentagon is also investing heavily in biofuels and commissioning research into ocean thermal energy conversion systems. Biofuels are showing some promise as a 'Green Fleet' being the USS Nimitz carrier group sailed around Hawaii in July 2012. The fleet comprising a cruiser, two destroyers and a fuel tanker were powered on a 50:50 mix of petroleum and biofuels and the Nimitz's strike aircraft were powered the same way. This raises the obvious conundrum, if the US military can see the value and importance of renewable energy, why do so many governments  pay it only lip service ?