Army TARDEC's Energy Innovation on Display at Detroit Auto Show

The Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) is helping us ask better operational energy questions vis a vis tactical vehicles at the upcoming North American International Auto Show coming up in Detroit. Truly innovative, exciting stuff they're doing with hybrid electrics, alt fuels, energy management, stealth and more.

Here are some of the questions they're posing, verbatim from the press release:

• "If this technology was successfully embedded and the necessary logistics and distribution issues addressed, how many fewer military vehicles would be hauling fuel?"
• "As fuel consumption is reduced and military vehicles use on-board renewable energy capabilities, how many less soldiers would be on the road delivering fuel and at risk from insurgent attack?"
• "How much longer could troops operate in austere environments if conventional fuel wasn't the challenge?"

Great way to kick off 2010. Would love to get (and pass on) a report from the show if at all possible ... know anyone who will be there?

Photo Credit: Clandestine Extended Range Vehicle (CERV) from the Autochannel.com

DOD Vehicle Electricity Presentation by MARCORSYSCOM

All DOD vehicles are getting hungrier for electricity. Or you might say, DOD is demanding more electricity from its vehicles, as this great presentation from IDGA's 2008 Tactical Vehicles Summit graphically illustrates. It's a narrated slide deck, and well worth your while: here.

Note, this stuff is not to be confused with plug-in hybrids and full electric vehicles. These are all gas burners, which like their distant relatives in utilities (co-generation) and homes (micro co-generation), extract multiple forms of power goodness (e.g. heat, mechanical energy, electricity) from combustion.

Presentation & Chart: from Michael Gallagher