United States Military Converting To Renewable Energy

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Not many people would expect the United States military to be one of the bigger advocates for renewable energy. The military relies on energy in order to keep it going and non-renewable energy sources are very expensive to maintain and logistically inconvenient. Because of this, the United States military had made plans for renewable energy to supply 50% of the military’s power by the year 2020.

Efficient and economically viable renewable energy has been one of the more sought after developments in recent years. Even though many private companies have invested in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear, renewable sources for energy are just not as efficient and reliable as fossil fuels. It would be very interesting to see the solution for renewable energies coming from the military and not a “green” environmental corporation.

The United States military has been invested in renewable energy for a while. In fact, Popsci.com tells us that by 2012 the U.S. Navy was the biggest purchaser of electric cars in the United States. The military is also keen on working on zero carbon footprint bases.

Although as of now, the military still relies heavily on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are huge logistical burden for the armed forces. Oil needs to be imported into battlefields all over the world. Once the fuel arrives, soldiers are deployed to patrol and guard the military’s fuel supply, instead of actually doing their intended job.

Fossil fuels also make up between 30% to 80% of logistic convoys. Because of this, these convoys carrying fuels become a huge target for hostile forces to take advantage of. A study done by the New York Times shows that for every 24 fuel convoys sent, one person is killed.

Renewable energy sources have been developing slowly in the military due to how expensive it is to produce energy with them. But considering the costs of transporting oil and the dangers involved with it, renewable energy does not seem too expensive.