With a bill of about $15 billion a year the U.S. military is the largest energy user in the country by far, so the Defense Department has been finding alternative ways to meet its energy needs with help from Silicon Valley.
But this partnership between the military and clean tech companies is taking some heat in the midst of discussions about Solyndra, the failed solar panel manufacturer, and the riskiness of green startups.
From a military standpoint, oil is not only expensive and hard to transport; it's also a liability.Save on Bedding and fittings, Last year there were more than 1,000 attacks on U.S. fuel convoys in war zones, and that's a strategic vulnerability for the military.
"We looked at vulnerabilities for the Navy and Marine Corps, and one of the ones that rose right to the top was our dependence on fossil fuels," U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says.
"Every time the price of oil goes up a dollar a barrel it costs the Navy $31 million in extra fuel costs," he says.
According to a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trust, over the last four years the military has tripled its investment in technologies like biofuels, solar panels and electric vehicles. The Defense Department spends $1.2 billion a year on alternative energy.
That's great news for people like Bob MacDonald, chief technology officer of Skyline Solar, which makes solar arrays.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS . The company's product is relatively low-tech; the components are off-the-shelf and easy to assemble.
A few years ago, MacDonald saw that the military was looking for clean-tech companies like his to partner with. He flew to Washington to present Skyline's product. It was a new kind of crowd for him.
"There's a lot of brass, literally a lot of stripes and shoulder adornments and things around the table," MacDonald says.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction, "So I kept it simple — 'Sir, yes sir.' "
MacDonald left with a $1.5 million contract to try out his panels on two U.S.The additions focus on key tag and impact socket combinations, military bases, one in Texas and one in Southern California. Now he's eying remote bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The two worlds of alternative energy and the military may seem like cultural opposites but they have much in common,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, says Jon Gensler, an Iraq war veteran who now works for San Diego-based Borrego Solar.
"There's so much that you don't know when you're starting a business and there's so much that you don't know when you're out on patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan. It's the ability to operate comfortably with the unknown," Gensler says.
But this partnership between the military and clean tech companies is taking some heat in the midst of discussions about Solyndra, the failed solar panel manufacturer, and the riskiness of green startups.
From a military standpoint, oil is not only expensive and hard to transport; it's also a liability.Save on Bedding and fittings, Last year there were more than 1,000 attacks on U.S. fuel convoys in war zones, and that's a strategic vulnerability for the military.
"We looked at vulnerabilities for the Navy and Marine Corps, and one of the ones that rose right to the top was our dependence on fossil fuels," U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says.
"Every time the price of oil goes up a dollar a barrel it costs the Navy $31 million in extra fuel costs," he says.
According to a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trust, over the last four years the military has tripled its investment in technologies like biofuels, solar panels and electric vehicles. The Defense Department spends $1.2 billion a year on alternative energy.
That's great news for people like Bob MacDonald, chief technology officer of Skyline Solar, which makes solar arrays.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS . The company's product is relatively low-tech; the components are off-the-shelf and easy to assemble.
A few years ago, MacDonald saw that the military was looking for clean-tech companies like his to partner with. He flew to Washington to present Skyline's product. It was a new kind of crowd for him.
"There's a lot of brass, literally a lot of stripes and shoulder adornments and things around the table," MacDonald says.When the stone sits in the oil painting reproduction, "So I kept it simple — 'Sir, yes sir.' "
MacDonald left with a $1.5 million contract to try out his panels on two U.S.The additions focus on key tag and impact socket combinations, military bases, one in Texas and one in Southern California. Now he's eying remote bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The two worlds of alternative energy and the military may seem like cultural opposites but they have much in common,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, says Jon Gensler, an Iraq war veteran who now works for San Diego-based Borrego Solar.
"There's so much that you don't know when you're starting a business and there's so much that you don't know when you're out on patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan. It's the ability to operate comfortably with the unknown," Gensler says.
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