By Geoff Fein
Although the Navy won’t be at the forefront in developing any hybrid technologies or alternative fuels for powering its ships, aircraft and vehicles, the service is nonetheless actively pursuing efforts to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, a Navy official said.
The spike in fuel costs couldn’t come at a more challenging time for the Navy. The service, just like its brethren in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, are engaged in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s interesting that the rise in fuel costs is going on while the country is at war, Capt. Chip Cotton, branch head for fleet training and readiness reporting, told Defense Daily in a recent interview. “That is a very very important perspective that needs to be understood.”
Because oil is a strategic resource, the Navy has to be cognizant of who it gets oil from, where it is refined…the entire supply chain, Cotton said.
“Where it is stored and how it is actually delivered, all the way to that end mile to the ultimate customer, whether it is a battle group out there providing presence or whether it is one of our expeditionary forces or combat construction crews rebuilding schools,” he aid. “We have to be very cognizant of how that fuel can flow the entire way.”
Because the Navy cannot just simply switch its ships, aircraft and vehicles to alternative fuels, the Navy is developing test procedures…test protocols and certifications that the service expects to have in place by FY ’11, Cotton added.
The effort would take sample engines and operate them on alternative fuel, for example bio fuels, or whatever new fuel the country or Navy researchers come up with and certify that the new product is viable, Cotton said.
“We’ll be able to test and certify that those products will be able to operate with our equipment,” he said. “We are not going to necessarily drive research and development efforts and go out and explore the bio fuels. What we want to do is position ourselves so that as the bigger market forces drive the production of those, when those become economically viable, we are ready to test and certify [their] use within the fleet.”
While the Navy hasn’t seen that it makes a lot of sense to go out and bet on every alternative fuel idea that comes along, such as French fry grease or beet juice, Cotton said, the service does want to make sure it is positioned to take advantage of whatever alternatives do come along that could prove feasible for Navy use.
“When it does happen and they produce an economically viable alternative form of fuel, we need to as a smart consumer, [and] immediately determine whether or not that will work for us,” he said.
A significant issue and the reason behind the effort to establish test protocols and certifications is that alternative fuels have properties that affect seals and the way pumps operate, Cotton said.
The Navy needs to ensure that any new fuels introduced meet the platforms’ specifications.
“So that’s why we are going through the process of establishing these test protocols, to make sure we are not sacrificing any of the capability…performance we are getting in an engine, because they do have different operating parameters,” he said.
Cotton acknowledged that in some cases using alternative fuels might not be a big deal, for example, in diesel engines. “[A] diesel [engine] will burn lots of different things.”
“But again, we want to do that in a smart fashion and make sure we understand thoroughly how it is going to effect the longer-term of our systems,” he added.
Historically, understanding what the fuel posture is–for example, how many flying hours per gallon does the service get–hasn’t been a leading measure for the Navy, Cotton said.
Now, however, one of the new things going forward in the service’s new systems is the development and addition of Joint Staff-directed key performance parameters (KPP) in the Navy’s acquisition process, he added.
“What you are seeing is energy [going from] a fact of life issue to [where it is] now actually being a conscious decision element as we are looking at not only what new weapon systems do we buy but how do we operate them, what is the best way to operate them? So there are some policy decisions that need to be made there,” Cotton said.
Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., for example, just opened up a training air space closer to the base, Cotton said. “That was a policy decision that we were able to do. So instead of having to fly into a different air space those guys can do their training missions right above Lemoore. That cuts down on fuel.”
“Having the guys taxi out to the runways, before they launch, on one engine instead of two, saves fuel,” he added. “We are doing things like that in the near-term to do the best we can. But we really are kind of at the mercy of the market place from a cost perspective. We have to find the most efficient way to use what we have.”
The Navy is also turning to very large wind projects and photovoltaic projects to help cut down on energy usage at shore based facilities, Cotton said.
The two biggest wind projects are at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and San Clemente Island, Calif., Cotton noted.
Using a 3.8 MW generator, Guantanamo Bay is able to produce about 25 percent of their energy requirement. San Clemente Island uses a 675 kW turbine that will provide about 15 percent of the station’s power, Cotton said.
At Naval Base Coronado, Calif., the Navy has installed photovoltaic cells, more commonly known as solar panels. But instead of dotting the open landscape with the arrays, the Navy has taken a unique step to provide power and keep cars cool.
“We have a lot of these in open parking lots so they actually made car ports. The roof of the car port is a photovoltaic cell, so we are protecting our sailors’ cars from the elements while at the same time drawing energy,” Cotton said. “That’s a 1 MW generator at Coronado/[Naval Air Station] North Island.”
Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division China Lake, Calif., also has installed solar panels, he added.
Both the Coronado and China Lake systems are fairly new, so Cotton was unable to provide any cost savings figures for either location.
China Lake is also using geothermal energy, Cotton said.
‘[It’s] enough to power 270 MW…it’s roughly a medium-sized city…180,000 homes,” he added.