Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona is set to get a 15 megawatt solar power installation that will create 550 new green jobs during construction, which will take about a year.  It’s also going to take a huge bite out of the base’s carbon footprint, supplying almost half of the base’s peak electrical demand.  Luke currently spends more than $5 million per year on electricity and uses more than 60 million kilowatt hours annually in mission support.

Tea partiers, take note: the new solar installation will be the largest of its kind on federal property, but it won’t cost taxpayers money up front. It will be owned by local utility Arizona Public Service, which will sell the clean renewable electricity to Luke under a long term agreement. Luke anticipates saving millions over the course of the contract, which will not be subject to the same market-driven spikes that bedevil fossil fuel suppliers.

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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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Two heavy-duty manufacturing powerhouses, Peterbilt and Eaton Corporation, have teamed up to give garbage trucks a fuel saving green twist.  This spring, Peterbilt announced its new Model 320 Hybrid which uses Eaton’s new hydraulic hybrid system to achieve up to 30% in fuel conservation, along with a consequent reduction in emissions and greatly reduced maintenance costs, too.  Now four of the sustainable behemoths are set for their first run in Michigan, in the green-minded city of Anne Arbor.

If garbage trucks seem unlikely candidates for a green makeover, consider that Caterpillar recently launched a fuel-saving diesel electric hybrid tractor, and the U.S. Army is developing fuel cells to reduce the use of petroleum fuel in its Abrams tanks. Just goes to show that significant opportunities to cut down on fossil fuels – and money – can pop up just about anywhere, and we’ve only just begun to tap the potential.

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The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced $9 million in funding for research into the use of algae that occur naturally in seawater to produce a sustainable twofer: renewable algae biofuel and algae fodder for cattle, too.  Hey, make that a threefer: studies have found that an algae diet can reduce methane emissions from cows, which is a major source of greenhouse gasses.

The funds will go to a Hawaii-based group called Cellana, LLC Consortium.  The use of naturally ocurring algae is an interesting twist on current research, much of which is focused on engineering new strains of algae for biofuels. It’s also interesting because the consortium leader, Cellana, is a joint venture of renewable energy startup HR BioPetroleum and oil industry giant Shell – yes, that Shell.  I guess biofuels makes strange bedfellows but if it gets the job done, let’s do it.

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A scientist at the Florida Institute of Technology has come up with a new compound that disinfects and cleans polluted water without producing toxic byproducts.  It’s based on ferrate, which is a  revved-up form of iron.  Through the school’s technology transfer office, chemistry professor Virender K. Sharma has teamed up to commercialize the product with Ferratec, LLC, a group formed by an investment incubation firm based in St. Louis called The Incubation Factory.  Ferratec has a background working with ferrate, including a complementary technology from global science/tech research leader Battelle Memorial Institute.

The involvement of Battelle is significant because the non-profit  manages the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, which fits in neatly with the federal government’s support for green chemistry that relies less on toxic substances including petrochemicals.  In addition, the partnership nurtured by Florida Tech’s technology transfer office and The Incubation Factory demonstrates the growing power of academic institutions to link up with private investors and bring more sustainability-related research into the sphere of the public economy.  It’s yet another manifestation of the weakening grip of fossil fuels as we move toward a more sustainable 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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We are always on the lookout for sustainable new developments in the burgeoning field of wastewater recycling, so of course this item from New Zealand caught our attention.  A PhD project by a Victoria University student is undergoing commercial development as a means of reclaiming water, high-pressure steam, fertilizer products, and acetic acid from wastewater.

The  project offers a sustainable management solution for wastewater and runoff from dairy farms, wineries, and meatworks in New Zealand, which as Lord of the Rings fans know has some spectacular environments worth protecting as well as lots of sheep.  Here in the U.S. there is a similarly motivated push by the EPA and Department of Agriculture to promote methane biogas production in the dairy industry.  It’s the high pressure steam and acetic acid  that give the New Zealand venture a new twist.

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Derek Lovley, that is. The University of Massachusetts researcher has already introduced a revved-up species of electricity-generating microbes to the world, and now he and a team of scientists are experimenting with microbes that can convert solar energy into chemicals.  As part of the growing trend in bioplastics, biofuels and green chemistry, the finding could help lead the way out of the fossil fuel mess.

The U.S. and other countries are still racing to exploit fossil fuel riches, but as British Petroleum’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico clearly illustrates, it’s a race into an increasingly oppressive future.  As Lovley and many other researchers are demonstrating, a safer and healthier alternative is in sight.

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While some Arizona legislators seem to have a bit of trouble deciphering the U.S. constitution, the state’s utility companies are wide awake when it comes to shifting out of fossil fuels and adopting renewable energy.  Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has joined the rush to renewables with an announcement that it will purchase the electrical output from solar, landfill gas, and wind installations, which when completed will total almost 160 megawatts or enough to power about 30,000 homes.

The greatest amount will come from ten new solar power installations, which together will account for 107 of the 160 MW.  TEP anticipates completion of these along with the wind and landfill gas projects in 2011 or 2012.

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Maybe castor beans are good for something besides castor oil – California based BioSolar has come up with a high-performance protective backsheet for solar panels made partly from a castor bean resin.  The bio-based product is cheaper than conventional backsheets, helping to lower the cost of photovoltaic installations.

High tech gains in solar cell efficiency may grab the banner headlines, but behind-the-scenes companies like BioSolar are also scoring points for helping to make solar energy more cost-competitive with fossil fuels by tweaking other components of a solar energy installation.

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