One Highly Successful DOD Building

I don't often write about facilities energy issues unless discussing the brittle grid problem and the need for smart grid technology and islanding micro grids. However, I'm willing to make an exception when something really good comes along.

Best known for being home to STRATCOM, Offutt AFB now has another claim to fame. It's the Air Force Weather Agency's new HQ, and it's the first USAF building to be certified at the LEED Gold level. Those unfamiliar with the massively successfully LEED sustainable building initiative can find out more here.

No, this one is not a net zero facility (meaning it still requires energy to make it run). But it does use new technologies and other creative design factors to cut its expected energy appetite in half. Multiple that type of efficiency through the tens of thousands of facilities DOD currently maintains and you can begin to imagine the impact. Click here for the the award summary for this great new structure.

Photo: USAF Weather

Biofuel Industry Malaise

Renewables, energy efficiency measures and the smart grid are all important parts of the facilities energy solution, but what's going to help vehicles? The Army recently contracted for thousands of low speed electric vehicles, and hybrid electrics are improving every year, but for most transportation requirements, fuel remains the fuel of choice (sorry).

Hence, it's unfortunate that current efforts to create non fossil based fuels are foundering.  This dispatch is from a recent gathering of biofuels experts in San Francisco:

Many at the conference expressed concern and discouragement. Companies that were once darlings of Wall Street have gone bankrupt. Dozens of ethanol plants have closed as oil prices dropped. Many promising second generation plants cannot get built due to lack of project financing. People with the money see the risk as too high. There continue to be zero commercial scale (20-million gallon per year and bigger) cellulosic ethanol plants, despite past glowing press releases that declared that they would now be running.

All I can say is: Go DARPA. Go DOE/NREL-Chevron CRADA. Go MIT et al. Don't give up on this please.

The Smart Grid is a Beast

For those of you catching the occasional flash that something new is coming to your utility bill, here's a nice narrative description that may bring it to life for you. However, as someone who's been looking at all the moving parts of what's called the smart grid, including the security considerations, I can't help but feel it wouldn't be hyperbole to call it the mother of all projects. It's so complicated and requires so many different engineering disciplines it's not even funny. OK, that makes it super interesting too.

For those who are interested in learning more, the Smart Grid News site is a good resource for getting (and keeping) up to speed with the key players and developments.

Something Practical: Let there be Lights

Not all DOD Energy stories are about fuel efficient jets or international intrigue, pipelines and pirates. Sometimes, all you need is a better bulb ... or should I say, diode. Enter Cyberlux :

Within the Department of Defense (DoD) service branches, the specific Cyberlux ArcLight system configuration is designed to illuminate portable deployable shelters for both 'command and control' and living environments. This system configuration includes features such as multi-color and infrared lighting, rapid setup and light-weight portability, and extended battery operation if electrical power is unavailable.

With 30% better energy efficiency and 10X the lifespan of what they're replacing, Cyberlux's LED-based solutions are well positioned to serve a DOD intent on getting leaner, meaner and greener.

From the SGS Blog: A Suitable Smart Grid Security Standards Dev Process

To all colleagues working on the formulation of effective security policy for the emerging smart grid, here's something from Jack Danahy I think you'll really like ...

JD: For those of you who are security devotees and are looking for a new place to offer some value, and for those of you who are dedicated to the Smart Grid and are worried about security, I'd like to draw your attention to the draft Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Smart Grid Policy Paper issued in March, and closing on comments this coming Monday, May 11th. Admittedly it might be a bit close to the wire for those of you looking to add your own views to the process, but as this is really only a draft, I figured that both communities would do well to be aware of what is coming in this potential policy so that you will be better prepared to think and act on it.

Click through for the full article: Foreseeing Federal Policy for Smart Grid Security

Air Force and OSD Seeking to Define "Energy Security"

This project seems to be at the early stages, but I believe it's potentially very valuable to the Department. What is energy security? It sounds dumb, but why do you need it?  What goes wrong when you don't have it? 

For me it's a direction and not a destination that can ever be reached, certainly not on a national level. But what types of things can DOD do to increase its energy security? Not to get all French on you, but the answers to that question are the raison d'etre of this blog.

So here's some of the early discussion led by Air Force energy executive Mike Aimone, with reference to an earlier definition by OSD. I'd be happy to hear your definitions and will certainly pass them on to the right folks.

Cautionary Words for Energy Tech Optimists

Sometimes you can get caught up in the relentless optimism of new energy evangelists like Better Place's Shai Agassi and believe that a totally different clean tech future is right around the corner. In fact, you want to get caught up.Yet as with almost endeavor, a balanced perspective is best for the long haul.

This post is from approx 6 months ago when oil was at $80 a barrel. Consider it now at $50 ... and how it applies at all other, highly volatile price points in the future. The words are to venture capitalists (VCs) (most often steeped in IT and internet models) and their investors ... but they matter to all of us including DOD:

Be forewarned, you do not have a comparative advantage here. The oil men invented risk taking, AND risk management. The oil men are bigger, faster, smarter, richer, have more scientists and more entreprenuerial spirit than you, AND they know energy.

VC's tend to believe that new technologies will always trump old processes, and they often don't fully grok how very different the energy business is:

In energy, there is no disruptive technology, only disruptive policy that makes some technologies look disruptive after the fact. In energy, the risk is in the scale up, not the R&D, and the end application is so massive, so capital intensive, and so utterly dependent on commodity prices, that you can't invest in it like you invest in IT. It takes longer, 10x as much money, and the ante up to play the game for one project is the size of your largest fund. At scale, there is no capital efficient strategy in energy.

Don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but it's important to keep the gigantic scale and enormous experience of the oil industry in mind at all times. And yet still push for change.