From the beginning, this Administration has shown a commitment to protecting American families at the pump by taking steps to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. In March, the President announced a goal of reducing oil imports by a third by 2025, through a combination of increased
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Energy Security
One of the central questions yet to be answered in energy technology is how to store energy from alternative sources like solar or wind that don’t always produce power when we need it. For the Navy and Marine Corps, this is particularly important, as we move toward our established goal of at least 50% non-fossil fuel use by 2020.
Qatar, even though the largest global producer of gas, understands and values the importance of clean technologies, including renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Middle Eastern country has been taking many necessary strides to become a major cleantech player, including increasing its cleantech research, development, and projects, and hosting
A report released yesterday by international conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said the world could be powered with renewable energy by 2050.
The Energy Report compiled by the NGO took two years to prepare and takes a global view of the issue and also includes
EarthTechling is calling the official state visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao (to American President Barack Obama) a “meeting of the minds.”
Though not in so many words, and certainly not using those words, the message is clear. Presidents Jintao and Obama had one strong common interest: clean,
On Oct. 13 the Department of Defense (DoD) hosted an Energy Security Forum as part of National Energy Awareness Month. We spent the day with leaders from the military services and the White House for a discussion on how the Department of Defense can turn our energy use from a strategic and operational challenge to a key strength for the warfighter.
October 13th is the 235th Anniversary of the founding of the United States Navy. So it was incredibly appropriate that today I had the opportunity to speak at two events focused on our military’s energy policy, because how the Navy and Marine Corps have harnessed energy has shaped our history since the birth of the Republic. And how energy is used and produced in
Several months ago, I mentioned the Shimizu Corporation’s plan to place solar panels on the moon to generate renewable energy that would be transferred back to Earth and distributed along power lines. Shimizu Corporation’s hope was that they could begin working on their project sometime in 2020 when Japan planned to have a solar powered base upon the moon.
On Tuesday, we hosted a lively forum at the White House, which brought more than 130 stakeholders– civilian and uniformed officials from the Department of Defense (DOD) and our armed services, policy makers from the Department of Energy (DOE), think tanks, and business entrepreneurs – together for a discussion on the importance of clean energy for our
| In a bold new risk publication out today from Lloyd’s of London, entitled Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business, the insurance heavyweight states in no uncertain terms that businesses that fail to prepare for short and long term energy crises face potentially catastrophic risks: |
Today President Obama travelled to Iowa and visited Siemens Energy, Inc., where he received a tour of the facility and saw the creation of blades that are capable of generating enough power for hundreds of homes. The President said that each employee of Siemens “Is helping stake America’s claim on a clean-energy future.”
The President discussed the future of clean energy in America, calling energy security “a top priority for my administration since the day I took office.” He explained that the Recovery Act made the largest investment in clean energy in the nation’s history- an investment expected to create or save 700,000 jobs by the end of 2012 and double America’s capacity to generate renewable electricity from sources like the sun and the wind:
On Tuesday, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment Jackalyne Pfannenstiel kicked off the first of several energy forums in front of a packed room to look at ways to increase biofuels production and meet the Navy’s renewable energy needs. The forum comes as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently signed by the USDA and the Navy to encourage the development of advanced biofuels and other renewable energy systems.
As the President pointed out in his energy security remarks last week, “…the Pentagon isn’t seeking these alternative fuels just to protect our environment; they’re pursuing these homegrown energy sources to protect our national security. Our military leaders recognize the security imperative of increasing the use of alternative fuels, decreasing energy use, reducing our reliance on imported oil, making ourselves more energy-efficient.”
The U.S. biofuels story is a mix of interrelated elements: energy security (lessening dependence on Middle Eastern oil), ethanol, a clean energy economy…and China.
Traditionally, the geopolitical reality plays out like this: the United States relies on politically sensitive Middle Eastern petroleum, which makes the U.S. particularly sensitive to oil price volatility, which in turn, compels the U.S. to invest money and human capital in guaranteeing supply.
But as a major corn producer, the United States commits corn resources to biofuels in the name of moving towards energy independence, price security, and a clean energy economy. Meanwhile, China is industrializing, making a lot of money in the process, and beginning to suck up a rapidly growing percentage of the global supply of crude oil.
Did you know that America’s largest installed solar power plant is located on Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada? The 14-megawatt solar array (shown at left) went live in late 2007 and remains the largest solar power plant in the United States.
While First Solar’s recent announcement of two 250-megawatt solar power plants in California dwarfs the military’s solar array, the fact remains that for a considerable amount of time the military will have operated the largest solar array in the United States. Why would the military take this step? The answer is energy security.