Following a trend established by other Air National Guard bases, namely Fresno, California and Ohio, the 105th Airlift Wing of the
New York Air National Guard plans to install a solar cell array this year.
The 105th Airlift Wing, also known as Stewart Air National Guard Base, Newburgh-Stewart IAP and Stewart International Airport, is located outside Newburgh, about 100 miles south of Albany, the capital of New York State.
The base comprises 267 acres and contains 36 buildings, amounting to approximately 757,000 square feet. The daily population is about 660, absent families or spouses. However, one weekend each month Air National Guard drills expand this to 1,600.
The solar announcement, by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), suggests that the solar installation will serve as dual purpose; as a model for other military bases, and to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of solar energy.
Funding for the $4-million project has been made available under the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill, approved by President Barack Obama for $5.3 billion. The project will help fulfill Congressional and Pentagon renewable energy requirements aimed at providing at least 25 percent of a military installation’s power requirements from renewable sources by 2025.
The Steward Air National Guard installation will be built by the Solar Energy Consortium, using Applied Materials thin-film technology, and will generate about 750 kilowatts, or enough electricity to provide about half the base’s needs under optimum conditions.
The Solar Energy Consortium, or TSEC, based in Kingston, New York, is a non-profit aimed at fulfilling the promise of solar energy by utilizing the resources of the solar industry, and New York State’s solar offerings, in particular, to network builders and users. TSEC will serve as Steward Air National Guard solar project manager.
Santa Clara, California-based Applied Materials, the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment, moved into the solar energy industry with its acquisition of Applied Films. The resultant solar manufacturing machines, and products, include thin-film solar modules, or panels, flexible photovoltaics, or Building Integrated Photovoltaics, and traditional crystalline silicone solutions.
The installation, covering four to six acres with panels individually rated at 460 watts, will also create about 10 to 20 part-time jobs, and the approximately 750,000 kilowatt hours produced – which might also power about 100 small, energy-efficient homes – will prevent 539 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the same as removing 103 cars from the road or planting 13,811 trees.
According to Rep. Hinchey, who helped create the TSEC in 2007, the array will be the largest solar installation in the Hudson Valley, and represents part of a larger initiative to bring more solar industries to that area of the state.
For the U.S. military, the addition of renewable energy technologies like solar within the confines of a military base represents freedom from dependency on an energy supply which is anchored to an antiquated national grid and fully vulnerable to natural or engineered disasters.
In other words, solar is security, and not just for the military base in question but for Americans, who depend on the military to protect them in times of difficulty.