It's hard to fathom just exactly how much energy it takes to run the largest and most technologically-advanced fighting force known to mankind. And while the Army's power consumption might be classified as a matter of national security, the price tag is not -- the Army spends $3B a year for the electricity to run its energy-intensive operations. That's one reason, along with reducing the risk of power interruptions, that the Army will build a 500MW solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert near Fort Irwin, CA.The new solar plant will save the Army $21M a year on energy costs and reduce the army's carbon bootprint by 4,015,000 tons once it's complete in 2014. Fort Irwin's solar plant will be completely unprecedented in size and output for any military installation. The project's price tag wasn't mentioned in the CNet article, but it'd be pretty interesting to get an idea of how many tanks were taken out of the budget to make way for renewable energy. According to the Army'sassistant secretary, the move was made in the name of energy security, not necessarily the environment:
"By making greater use of alternative and renewable energy, Army initiatives will bring energy savings and security to the Army, reducing the risk of power disruption,"[via Earth2Tech]
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