Comments about ‘Solar project aims to help wean Army off grid’

That kind of solar collector wont work when skies are overcast which
which they often are.

Oil is the lifeblood of the military. I read about D-Day that it was Texas oil that got our troops onto the beaches of Normandy, but today, virtually all our oil to move men, material, and machine has to be outsourced, often from the very regions that we're bombing.

Between 2003-7, over 3,0000 American soldiers and contractors lost their lives on fuel convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our enemies know oil/fuel are the soft spot in our military, and the fuel convoys become easy targets. Indeed, our secret outfits in Afghanistan are often "revealed" to the enemy due to the not-so-hidden oil tanker truck routes!

In short, "America's oil addiction" (Bush's words in 2006) is a key threat to America's existence, national security, and operations in combat.

The military gets this and is moving rapidly to develop alternative energy to move this great nation of ours off our foreign oil dependence, such as outfitting troops with solar-powered equipment. Just as innovations from military applications have often moved into the private sector for citizens, the military's innovations in energy are destined to benefit the whole of society.

Cjb, you can store power in batteries for when it is overcast or night time.

@cjb you might be right, but we wont know until we try. My grandfather often said "A man that does not make a mistake does not make anything".

For me this is exciting for our future, if you look at the drop in price of PV electric panels this early medium scale installation will be the start in driving down the cost of Solar electricity.

These small steps will eventually move us all away from dependance on Fossil Fuel.