The U.S. Navy has been roaring into the sustainable future with test flights for a biofuel-powered fighter jet, and now it’s going to the opposite end of the speed scale with a fleet of solar powered vehicles in the “Slow Moving Vehicles” category, meaning they have a top speed of 25 mph.  The SMV’s, as they are affectionately known, are being deployed through the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida.

The motivation for adopting solar-charged electric vehicles comes from a Navy directive to have a fleet of more than 2,500 SMV’s, as part of a goal of achieving a 50% cut in petroleum use by 2015 (based on 2009 usage). Since the Southeast Command has one of the largest fleets in the Navy, it needs an alternative source of energy to offset the additional demand on the electric grid from charging hundreds of electric vehicles.

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The U.S. Navy is getting serious about solar energy and has just awarded five contracts worth up to $100 million for the design, installation and management of solar arrays at Navy and Marine Corps facilities in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. This is by no means the first foray into solar power for the Navy, which was installing solar arrays at least as far back as 2002 and recently installed a solar roof at Pearl Harbor, but it does indicate a significant ramping up in terms of pace and scale.

With our military adopting safe, renewable solar power hand over fist, it will be that much harder on the fossil fuel industry to get the American public to continue accepting coal, oil, and gas resources that are proving to be more dangerous and unreliable than the U.S. can tolerate.  The latest disasters – a new oil spill in coastal Louisiana and an oil spill in Michigan that could be among the worst ever for the Midwest – are just further proof that it’s time to let go of the past and embrace the future.

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The Army has a green roof and the Air Force has a green roof, so it was only a matter of time before the Navy got its green roof, too.  Construction on a new energy efficient green roof at Naval Station Norfolk just got under way earlier this month.  In addition to the value of a plant-covered roof for saving money through energy conservation, the Navy’s press release describes a downright Hobbit-like extra benefit, “the formation of a living environment that provides habitats for birds and other small animals…[and] an attractive alternative to traditional roofs.”

Shades of the Shire! The habitat angle is not an isolated one for the U.S. Military.  Wildlife conservation at military bases across the U.S. has become a point of focus for the Department of Defense as part of an increased concentration on environmental stewardship overall.  Though Naval Station Norfolk is far from being a pristine rural area, its new green roof can help demonstrate the value and viability of green roof micro-habitats in high density industrialized civilian areas as well as military installations.

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Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has become the “Flat Stanley” of the sustainable new millennium.  A two-dimensional material that seems to be popping up just about everywhere in nanomaterials research, graphene has wowed scientists with its potential for, among other things, replacing silicon in computer chips as a light, durable, ultra-compact, low cost, high-efficiency conductor.  Now researchers at Rice University have conceived a material that pairs the conducting properties of graphene with an insulating variant called graphane.

Rice University writer Mike Williams, who came up with the Flat Stanley moniker, explains that the new development could lead to an even smaller class of electronics than is possible with graphene alone.  Though a permanent solution to e-waste is years away, at least the graphene-graphane connection could help reduce the sheer bulk of the problem.

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Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has become the “Flat Stanley” of the sustainable new millennium.  A two-dimensional material that seems to be popping up just about everywhere in nanomaterials research, graphene has wowed scientists with its potential for, among other things, replacing silicon in computer chips as a light, durable, ultra-compact, low cost, high-efficiency conductor.  Now researchers at Rice University have conceived a material that pairs the conducting properties of graphene with an insulating variant called graphane.

Rice University writer Mike Williams, who came up with the Flat Stanley moniker, explains that the new development could lead to an even smaller class of electronics than is possible with graphene alone.  Though a permanent solution to e-waste is years away, at least the graphene-graphane connection could help reduce the sheer bulk of the problem.

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The U.S. Navy has been placing a well-aimed barrage of funding toward sustainable new energy technology in recent years, including new solar installations at naval bases, high-efficiency desalination systems, and even camelina biofuel for Navy fighter jets.  Now the Office of Naval Research has upped the ante with grants for nine new green tech research projects. The grants go to the nine winners of a clean energy challenge that the Navy issued at its recent Naval Energy Forum. The awards underscore the importance of new sustainable technology for Naval operations, but the Office of Naval Research also observes that investing more money in new technology is only part of the solution.

In order to effect a broad new approach to energy, the Navy needs to implement a sweeping “policy change to help make the necessary cultural shifts in how its people think about energy use and the decisions they make in all settings, including acquisition, tactical and shore use.”  It’s a call for introspection that political leaders in the civilian sector should take to heart.

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The jury is still out on the commercial viability of kudzu as a biofuel crop, but scientists at the University of Virginia have come up with a compelling reason to get the invasive, fast-growing vine under control but quick.  The team has found evidence that kudzu is a major contributor to surface ozone pollution.

The kudzu-induced increase in ozone is so powerful that it “completely overcomes the reduction in ozone realized from automobile pollution control legislation,” reports a member of the research team.  Dang!

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It was probably inevitable that the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces would try to one-up each other in the race to marginalize fossil fuels, and here’s just the latest example.  Just a few months after the U.S. Marines announce a portable solar power system the size of a large suitcase, the Air Force signs a $3.5 million contract with Lockheed Martin to outfit entire shipping containers as portable solar power generators for rapid field deployment.

It’s just one part of an all-out push by the U.S. Armed Forces to wean themselves – and the rest of us – off fossil fuels, and though we don’t need any more reminders that it’s way past time to do that, here’s the BP oil spill, the Massey coal mine disaster (to say nothing of mountaintop coal mining), the Tennessee coal ash flood, and the Iraq War.  Not too long ago the U.S. ran on firewood, whale oil and raw horsepower, so what’ s the big deal about continuing to move up the energy ladder?

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The U.S. Office of Naval Research has awarded a $400,000 grant to desalination tech leader NanoH2O, to develop a high efficiency desalination nanomembrane that is more resistant to fouling.  The effort, part of the Navy’s Future Naval Capabilities program, is aimed at increasing energy efficiency and portability for shipboard use. The NanoH2O grant also dovetails with the U.S. Navy’s focus on addressing climate change issues through its Task Force Climate Change program.

In contrast to climate science deniers like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other key organizations representing the interests of fossil fuel industries, the U.S. Department of Defense is moving aggressively to prepare for a future that is far more sustainable and energy efficient, and far less dependent on fossil fuels.  Hey, if those business “leaders” aren’t going to support our troops, they could at least get out of the way while everybody else is busy working.

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Teeny tiny particles could provide an answer to a massive problem: how to provide enough potable water to sustain the global population of human beings.  Researchers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA have come up with one solution, a membrane made of  a specially engineered nanoscale material that can purify water with far greater energy efficiency than current technology.

Not that we really could drink our way out of climate change and rising sea levels, but a more energy efficient way to desalinate seawater could enable the world’s population to use the oceans as a source of potable water on a far greater scale than is currently done.

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