Cyber Security Wake-up Call on DOD Facilities Control Systems

For some, the title of this post won't make the connection to DOD energy issues immediately obvious. Well, all I can say is: think about the Smart Grid, the growing melange of old world electric grid systems and cutting edge networking and Web 2.0 software systems. Then consider the DSB-identified brittle grid challenge to DOD bases: "Critical missions at fixed installations are at unacceptable risk from extended power loss" and the various smart and micro grid solutions being considered to help isolate them via "islanding." See this presentation delivered at the June 2009 Air Force Cyber Security Symposium for a solid intro.

DOD's Transformers: Creating the Next Generation of Cleantech Warriors

NDU's Energy Security and Policy Chair Richard Andres has just penned a nice post at Global Security on DOD's role in changing the energy consciousness of two cultures:

1. Its own - a work in progress but picking up speed every day as increasing numbers of service men and women are indoctrinated; and,
2. The USA - the primary reservoir of and repository for DOD talent

Here, Andres lays out the logic ... and the math:

Militaries are good at creating cultural mindsets. They do it through boot camp, through war colleges, through constant repetition of messages and many other tried and proven methods. Each year the services take in hundreds of thousands (my emphasis) of young men and women and inculcate in them values they carry for the rest of their lives. Each year an equal number of servicemen and women exchange their uniform for business clothes and rejoin civilian society. Now that it has officially decided to go green, the organization that produces the dedicated men and women we see fighting the nation's wars today will work to produce a generation of leaders who will help to solve America and the world's energy and environmental challenges tomorrow.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Photo: CNET covering a recent welcoming session for a future energy warrior at my Rocky Mountain alma mater.

DOD & Aviation Biofuels Mid 2009 Update

Dr. Karbuz (as usual) offers an excellent status update on biofuels research from aviation and DOD perspectives. You'll get educated, but once he's taken you through all the milestones and anecdotes of recent progress, it's his first and last words words that drive home the enormity of this challenge:

First ...

Commercial Jet fuel has stringent requirements. Alternatives are expected to perform exactly like kerosene so that aircraft do not have to be modified. They are expected to be environmentally sustainable and cost effective. 

Last ...

All these are good news, at least the cost side. But the scale of required production still remains a problem. By the way, who will invest in biofuels production without having any purchase guarantee or government subsidies?

Here's the full post. And here's a release from SAIC on its algae work for DARPA.

Photo: Reuters

Havel Tells Europe to Dump Russia from its Energy Script

Former playwright turned revolutionary turned Czech President (now retired) Vaclav Havel has a history of calling out the emperor when his news clothes are lacking. Europe is facing a Devil's Bargain, with Russian entreaties to continue as its trusted supplier of natural gas on one side, balanced against the alternative of seeking new energy sources and risking Russia's wrath. As I've said on this blog previously here, here, and most recently here, it's long past time for Europe to build itself some leverage via development of credible options.

Here's Havel in Bloomberg:

Rather than buy gas from Russia, Europe should pursue projects like the Nabucco pipeline to import gas from the Caspian Sea region through Turkey, Havel said. On May 6, the European Union approved an initial investment of 200 million euros ($277 million) for the pipeline which was endorsed by Turkey two days later. It’s expected to begin operation in 2015, according to the EU. “They should have come up with that years ago,” Havel said referring to the Nabucco plan, and said Europe must wean itself from fossil fuels.

As one DOD Energy Blog reader noted, this situation mirrors in some ways the brittle grid challenge facing DOD facilities. The initial get-well path is the creation of "energy islands" so critical functions can be powered in the event of an outage. European communities reliant on Russia for heating should be doing everything they can to produce energy locally via renewables and any other resources they can find (e.g., waste to heat). Much of Western Europe has been building out renewables at a tremendous rate, but Eastern Europe lags, and both need to aggressively explore and execute every possible energy option. Full article is here.

Yet the problem of scale remains, as well as the many pitfalls that plague new pipeline projects (see excellent backgrounder on the problems facing Nabucco by DOD and European energy expert Sohbet Karbuz here.)

A Mighty Wind: High Altitude Wind Power

One look at Sky Windpower's site will tell you the company and its potential products are still more potential than kinetic. However, that doesn't mean they're not worth a look as DOD ponders options for solving the brittle grid challenge to CONUS facilities. Two Standford researches have just finished a study that shows some of the greatest concentrations of high altitude wind power can be found near some of the world's largest centers of power demand, including the eastern coast of USA. This article provides more detail on the promise and the potential pitfalls of this visually captivating concept.

Seems Wrong to Call Them "Drones"

The DOD Energy Blog has pondered the energy demand implications of UAVs before ... like here for example. It's still too early to tell which way this is going, but if you read the news you know that UAVs are on an upward trajectory and manned aircraft are heading for a landing. Here's two very different yet recent signposts that may tell us a little more about the vectors these new fangled aircraft are flying at.

The first is from Thomas P.M. Barnett, author of the outstanding 2004 book: The Pentagon's New Map. His article "The New Drones and the Re-symmetricized Battlefield" contends that UAVs are the US's first real equalizer in the asymmetrical wars in which we're engaged ... and that there's no question they're here to stay.

To this I add the otherwise mundane details of a company's conference call to its investors. Today, among other things publicly-traded AeroVironment revealed to investors and analysts, were these two nuggets:

• We continue to believe that we are strategically well-positioned with our Unmanned Aircraft Systems focused on actionable intelligence and communication, and our efficient energy systems focused on clean electric vehicles and energy
• We have seen a growing amount of our UAS funding reflected in DoD budget line items over the last few years. The current FY09 supplemental and FY10 DoD budget requests, although not yet final, suggest that this growth trend will continue.

If Barnett's well-informed top down view, bolstered by AeroVironment's bottom-up anecdotes regarding its mini-UAVs tell us anything, it's that UAVs are coming on strong in DOD thinking, planning and execution. But what does this mean for future fuel demand? Each UAV may be smaller and lighter and use comparably less fuel than its manned equivalent. But what if we eventually deploy 2, 10, 100 or 1,000 times as many of them as we currently do fighter, bomber and surveillance platforms? Will they be partially solar or fuel-cell powered and therefore not add substantially to our JP-8 demand? Or will they consume jet fuel in ever increasing quantities and put pressure on DOD to find an alternative to fossil fuels even faster than it's trying today?

Of course I don't know the answer and I bet DOD doesn't either, but stay tuned ... the plot only thickens.

Photo: AeroVironment

QDR 2010 Coming into Focus with No Focus on Energy

We're in the early stages of the development of the first Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) since the advent of $150/barrel oil one year ago. The way this DOD QDR Fact Sheet lays it out, however, mentioning only "scarcity of resources" and "climate change," energy may or may not get any extra attention this cycle. Same holds true from this 2010 QDR thematic preview from DOD Buzz.

It's hard to believe that with energy half of what it was 12 months ago, and twice what it was 6 months ago, the massive price volatility hasn't snapped more seniors awake. Not one mention of fuel ... nor any of energy management or energy security.

Well, not to get all doom and gloom on you - I'll admit I know there are at least a couple of folks working this QDR from an energy angle, but it remains to be seen how loud their voices will be.