Fuel supply convoys have been the Achilles heel of our military operations since the first Gulf War. The Defense Department knows this, which is why they are sinking tons of money into refining mobile renewable energy solutions including solar backpacks, tents, and other off-grid equipment. The Army actually pioneered an electric HUMVEE that outperformed the diesel version. Each wheel had an electric motor providing intense torque and silent operation. Pretty cool stuff.
The latest attack on fuel convoys makes finding ways to make our troops less vulnerable and protect these poor guys who have to drive these bombs on wheels all the more critical.
New York Times
By Elisabeth Rosenthal, October 4, 2010
With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.
Last week, a Marine company from California arrived in the rugged outback of Helmand Province bearing novel equipment: portable solar panels that fold up into boxes; energy-conserving lights; solar tent shields that provide shade and electricity; solar chargers for computers and communications equipment.
The 150 Marines of Company I, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, will be the first to take renewable technology into a battle zone, where the new equipment will replace diesel and kerosene-based fuels that would ordinarily generate power to run their encampment.
Even as Congress has struggled unsuccessfully to pass an energy bill and many states have put renewable energy on hold because of the recession, the military this year has pushed rapidly forward. After a decade of waging wars in remote corners of the globe where fuel is not readily available, senior commanders have come to see overdependence on fossil fuel as a big liability, and renewable technologies — which have become more reliable and less expensive over the past few years — as providing a potential answer. These new types of renewable energy now account for only a small percentage of the power used by the armed forces, but military leaders plan to rapidly expand their use over the next decade.
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