The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment say they cut diesel consumption in their generators from 20 gallons a day to 2.5 gallons a day, according to a Marine report.
Thanks to flexible solar panels, the sun can help run military equipment — and it may even cut down on casualties.
Marines who used the technology say it helps in three main ways:
- Fewer Supply Convoys — With less need for fuel and batteries, fewer trucks are exposed to possible attacks on the road.
- Quieter Is Safer — Units that rely on diesel generators to keep equipment running at night could go quiet while running on batteries, making them harder for the enemy to find.
- Efficiency — The foldable solar blankets are light and don’t take up much space. That should help patrols’ mobility, and save space for other supplies — like ammunition, as one sergeant says.
The recent tests showed that using alternative energy on military missions has both tactical and environmental benefits. And in both the Virginia and the Afghanistan tests, Marines praised the panels for being durable, light and simple — kind of the trifecta for field gear.
Contrary to those Republicans still wanting to throw away huge subsidies to Big Oil, employing this technology on top of every house in America, would go a long way to bettering every single American’s life and put more money in his/her pocket.
Semper Fi.
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January 28, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Duffy
It should but it doesn’t scale. Otherwise we’d be going it now.
January 29, 2011 at 2:38 pm
anonymous
People could start with a couple of solar blankets that heat, a cooling blanket (someone patent, manufacture these please,) a few small affordable solar roof applications to run a couple lamps, a fan, etc. at little cost; (or perhaps some new flexible solar material,) downscaled affordable windmill(s) and have a 2.5 gal per day emergency generator. These are technically do-able and could be affordable for those who have nothing in common with the corporate elite clean energy obstructionists and deniers.
What the fossil fuel industry, suppliers, aligned industries most likely also fear, is that the average person will become informed, comfortable, reliant on clean affordable home based energy usage and with improvements, additions, as they become more affordable, easily applicable, the average homeowners could one day say, OK, you can turn your meter off, because supporting CO2 production isn’t necessary or prudent, and neither are your delivery charges, supplier charges, generation charges, ancillary charges, transmission charges, power cost adjustment charges, your demand charges, multiplier charges, customer charges, power factor charges, renewable resource fund and charges. And those new coal plants, disproportionately benefit commercial fossil fuel rates, so let them pay.
Same thing applies for paying to bring trash TV into one’s home for X rated, hate and anti American propaganda. Add to the savings, by not paying monthly for a dial tone lien, flat rate unlimited service, monthly initiation adjustment, touch tone, weekend choice plan, a charge to meet the minimum charge, a weekend calls charge, direct dial calls charge, federal excise tax, E911 charge, federal subscriber line charge, federal universal service fee.
Conservatives could live up to their name, by saving -$300-$600+ monthly or -$3,600 to $7,200+ of their own money each year, which nearly equals more than what one could save after working 40 hrs a week at a minimum wage job. The thousands of dollars saved per year would be invested to pay the off a large windmill and the latest affordable solar roof, garage and yard panels. and even to over produce energy.
Conservatives could greatly reduced utility costs and the average family wouldn’t be contributing to wasting their own income unnecessarily polluting, paying to bring filth into their home, paying endless nonsensical utility charges but mostly, having their own children face less of a challenge to survive. If that isn’t worth a ‘conservative’s’ effort, what is, helping uncle Pete and cousin Charlie? If they don’t think corporate interests would dump their industrial wastes and costs on the environment, think Cherry Island, Indian River, Christiana River, Delaware River or check the CO2 smokestacks to the sky.
Let the corporate elite worry about their own obstructionism, delays, resistance, denial, the multi millions they spend promoting same and – their own rising commercial fossil fuel bills. Without the public help in feeding the billion dollar fossil fueled greed, they would soon be switching to the economy of sun and wind. We need products for the poor and middle classes to build from ground up
not just top down grants for billionaire corporations and tax breaks for deep pocket Charlies.
Other countries will be interested in supplying Americans affordable energy products. They’re doing a good job supplying millions of middle Americans, thousands of other affordable products.
January 30, 2011 at 9:56 am
anonymous
America has an ethical obligation to the world’s people, their planet, that many choose to deny.
As the corporate/government environmental destroyers remain more interested in big oil profits and trillion dollar wars – ‘conservatives’ are brainwashed (through ignorance and the hate of Rush, Beck, etc.) to believe that free, zero emissions energy development is the enemy, rather than what it is, a natural, affordable, clean supply of energy that preserves life of the natural systems of the planet.
Imagine ‘Americans’ preaching that the energy of the sun, air, water, are big, frightful, communist plots, rather than life giving, sustaining, natural resources. Do republicans think, flexible solar panels, helping to run military equipment, are also evil?
Witness Delaware’s energy dealers, (the same players who battled zero emissions wind power and all things clean) adhering to the worst possible energy choices, for the worst chemical mix – the deadly over abundance of atmospheric CO2, the world’s worst enemy. They back, build new coal plants, their CO2 smokestacks more like weapons, aimed at the sky.
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/coal-fired-power-plants.html
Notice the republicans at work in Washington:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/149526/gop_solution_to_air_pollution:_pass_a_law_declaring_that_pollutants_aren't_pollutants/
The task of getting hundreds of millions of Americans off their deadly, dirty fossil fuel addictions, may need to be imported from advanced technical and manufacturing countries, countries with people who know and react to the urgent necessity for the development of clean, economical energy for the ‘tactical and environmental benefits’ that translate to – the survival of life on the planet.
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” Thomas Edison
Could he have imagined this?
http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4GPEA_enUS329US330&q=mountain+top+removal&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=6V5FTaGGDofrgQfZ9cy2AQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CE4QsAQwAQ
February 1, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Duffy
Some good points here. Esp. about “conservatives” subscribing to tons of stuff they claim to abhor. Blame that on local monopolies but we want our entertainment and we’ll take a load of crap so long as we get what we want. It would be VERY interesting if cable channels were a la carte. I suspect a great many of them would disappear overnight.
On the energy front I think these guys: http://www.bloomenergy.com/
are someone to watch. They’re up and running at MAJOR players’ facilities. If we scale these down to the single family home level everything is going to change.