Monday, September 23, 2013

Geiss on Air Force Energy Progress - Sep 2013 Update

Hat tip to OSD's Ollie Fritz again (and again).

Straight up, here are highlights from an interview with Dr Kevin Geiss, DASAF for Energy, from a recent article: "A more fuel-efficient Air Force"

Eighty-four percent of the Air Force’s annual $9 billion energy budget pays for jet fuel, and of that 60 percent is for 900 mobility flights per day moving cargo and people.

Even though the service has no control over fuel costs or the missions it is called to serve, it aims to “get better [energy efficiency] at every flight,” says Kevin Geiss, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for energy.

Dr. Geiss outlined some of the service’s energy-saving efforts in a recent interview:

Monday, September 16, 2013

A New TET Offensive: Navy Transportation Efficiency Breakthrough


Thanks to OSD's Ollie Fritz for flagging this. With help from the forward looking Office of Naval Research (ONR), this new rather low-tech energy saving breakthrough is called the Transportation Exploitation Tool or TET for short.

Here's an example of how it works:
Imagine a scenario where a U.S. Navy ship in a foreign port urgently needs a particular engine part to complete its mission. TET allows the user to simply enter what cargo needs to be shipped and where it’s going, and then provides the planner with all available space on transports across military and commercial sectors, with recommendations for the most efficient routes. 
Previously, planners had to search multiple databases to access all civilian and military space availability, which could require hours or even days. In the worst cases, separate flights had to be chartered.
You can read the full piece HERE.

Photo credit: Marines.mil

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Conference Alert: Defense Energy Summit

Haven't been this enthused about an energy conference since GovEnergy (RIP).  The line-up of speakers would be hard to beat. Though there's a caveat.

The vast majority of senior DOD and government speakers haven't yet confirmed, most likely due to frozen travel budgets (tagged with * below). Maybe some of them, like Senator Cornyn, even though Texas is a quite large, can simply drive. But the challenge is more significant for Washingtonians.

Listed Speakers
  • Sharon Burke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs US Department of Defense
  • Jonathan Powers, Federal Environmental Executive, The White House
  • Senator John Cornyn, State of Texas*
  • Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense*
  • Richard Kidd IV, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Energy & Sustainability, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army Installations, Energy & Environment, US Army*
  • General Martin Dempsey, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff*
  • Thomas Hicks, Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy/Deputy Chief Management Officer, US Navy*
  • Kevin Geiss, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Energy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, US Air Force*
  • John Lushetsky, Executive Director, Army Energy Initiatives Task Force, US Army*
  • Honorable Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy & Environment), U.S. Army
  • Chris Smith, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy US Department of Energy
Nevertheless, the program looks very strong with or without the keynotes. I'll be there for sure.*

Details

When: November 11-13, 2013
Where: Austin, TX
For more info and to register: www.defenseenergy.com