Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, more familiar as Gitmo, the site of one of America’s most notorious military prisons, is installing its first major solar energy array. The new photovoltaic system may not do much to clean up Gitmo’s image or improve conditions for those incarcerated there, but it will generate enough clean energy to help reduce the use of diesel fuel.
Currently, almost all of the electricity for Gitmo is supplied by diesel generators.
Electricity generated by the new football field-sized solar installation will power an expanded gym at Gitmo’s Cooper Field Sports complex.
The solar installation is a new twist for Gitmo, but over the past few years solar power has become ubiquitous at other U.S. defense facilities including another well known Navy base, Pearl Harbor, which installed five large-scale rooftop solar arrays last year.
The push for solar is part of a military-wide transition out of petroleum fuels and into biofuels and other forms of alternative energy, especially those that can harvest energy on site including wind and geothermal.
The switchover is particularly important for remote bases like Gitmo, which has no land-based fuel or water supply.
As Gitmo Resource Efficiency Manager Tim Wagoner explained in a press statement regarding the new solar installation: “The use of alternative energy sources is extremely important for the base to provide energy security to it. Currently with the diesel generators, we are completely dependent on the fuel that is delivered to the station.”
The continued pursuit of petroleum alternatives is particularly critical to Gitmo’s long term sustainability, given the base’s rapid expansion after the terror attacks of September 2001. That caused energy demand to skyrocket, with the unfortunate result that at least one ambitious alternative energy initiative, the base’s signature wind turbines, has fallen far short of its goal.
The turbines were conceived with the prediction that they could provide up to a quarter of the base’s peak needs, but that was before the expansion. The four 275-foot turbines went into operation back in 2005 as planned and are still proudly featured on Gitmo’s online newsletter, but according to a recent report at The New York Times, they now supply only about 3 percent of the demand.
The base is now in the position of playing catch-up with its alternative energy ambitions, and the new solar array is part of that effort.
Other recent measures include a waste oil-to-energy system installed last year. The new system creates a blend of used oil and fresh diesel that is suitable for use in diesel-fueled vehicles and generators, enabling the base to recycle used oil, rather than shipping it off for disposal under a hazardous waste classification.
This year Gitmo also installed two new generators that are more efficient than the old ones, retrofitted its street lighting with high-efficiency LED lights, and installed new perimeter lights along one side of the base. The lights are powered by batteries that charge up with solar power by day.
The single largest consumer of electricity on the base is the reverse osmosis equipment used to desalinate seawater. As this equipment is the base’s sole supply of potable water, dating back to Castro’s cutoff of the land-based supply in 1964, water conservation has historically been an important part of energy logistics at the base.
This year’s efforts included the installation of low flow showerheads estimated to save more than 8 million gallons per year in addition to saving fuel.
