“We’ve got the installation side of it; we’ve also got contingency basing, which is an important part of this,” said LTG Ray- mond V. Mason, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, G-4 (Logistics). “It’s kind of like everything is related to everything else.”


Operational energy involves training, moving, and sustaining forces and sys- tems, Mason said. “One of the issues is, does operational energy just include the battlespace and what’s deployed? Or does it include things back in the generating space, the institutional Army?” he said. The latter is true, he said. “For example, actions that occur at the National Train- ing Center or the Joint Readiness Training Center [that] prepare units to deploy [are] part of operational energy.”


Mason said his goal is to “optimize the footprint, not necessarily reduce it,” and to mitigate risk.


Operational energy is being explored by the Brigade Modernization Command with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Divi- sion at Fort Bliss, through the testing of vehicles and radios as part of the Net- work Integration Evaluation. “We are also going to put operational energy into that side and figure out with Soldiers in a real brigade—no longer in a laboratory, but a test battlefield—what makes sense for operational energy,” Mason said.


FINANCING THE CHANGE


“After people, the biggest cost to our instal- lations for senior commanders is energy,” Aycock said. “We’ve got to be a lot more conscious of that particular piece.”


The Army needs to do two things with its investment in energy: produce a return and change people’s thinking that energy is “abundant and redundant,” Aycock said. He added that the Army is working to make energy more visible, more relevant,


VEHICLE POWER


Kansas National Guard Soldiers adjust the batteries for a solar shade provided by U.S. Army Africa for working assessment at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. Four Hawker High Mobility Multipur- pose Wheeled Vehicle batteries serve as the core of the solar shade’s electrical storage system. (U.S. Army photo.)


and more of a combat multiplier, as well as to put all of the Army’s energy investments through an extensive cost-benefit analysis.


To make power and energy efficiency more affordable, the Army tracks tax credits and other state- and local-level opportunities, encouraging their use where appropriate, Kidd said.


Hammack pointed out that federal renewable energy tax credits have helped reduce the cost of renewable energy over- all by about 15 to 20 percent per year for the past several years. “What it has meant is that even without some of these incen- tives, renewable energy is becoming much more cost-effective and has a decent return on investment if you structure it right,” she said.


CONCLUSION While the Army’s smarter use of energy is a complex challenge, Hammack stressed that it is a high priority for the Army. “It


is a force enabler. It enables us to conduct our primary mission in a more efficient and effective manner,” she said.


Hammack added that energy and power improvements are operationally neces- sary and need to be made in a fiscally responsible manner, particularly in light of declining budgets. She said, “We have to increase the resiliency of our operations, just like we are working to increase the resiliency of our Soldiers and their families.”


“We’re looking at intelligent power in every form,” Justice said. “We’re looking at green energy, and there’s nothing more green than Army green.”


BRITTANY ASHCROFT provides contract support to the U.S. Army Acquisition Sup- port Center through BRTRC Technology Marketing Group. She has nearly 10 years’ experience in magazine editing and holds a B.A. in English from Elmhurst College.


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CONFERENCE CALL


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