![]() Savage worries about cyber vulnerabilities that are introduced because microgrids feed energy back into the broader grid. It will be able to respond in as little as a thirtieth of a second to changes in electrical supply or demand. The microgrid system at Fort Hunter Liggett uses solar arrays to generate electricity and batteries to store it. It will be tested by May 2023 at the latest as part of a pilot program, along with a newer prototype at the Camp Parks base some 30 miles east of San Francisco, which will be built starting early next year. Fort Hunter Liggett, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is currently building a microgrid that will allow it to supply all of its own electricity for up to two weeks at a time - the first Army base to do so. ![]() All told, the Army has installed over 500 megawatts worth of renewable capacity in recent years. The Army has built a floating island of solar panels in a North Carolina lake that makes a bit over a megawatt of electricity a 10 megawatt array in Alabama and a 30 megawatt one in Georgia. And Katie Savage, a Pentagon civilian who leads the microgrids program, says she hopes the Army’s deployment of microgrids will lead to a broader cultural shift, leading communities across the country to shift away from traditional utilities. ![]() If the pilot program succeeds, it will make the Army not only greener, but also more self-sufficient. They are sophisticated enough to balance the load between lots of different energy sources (like solar panels) and variable demands on electricity. Microgrids can run on their own without external energy, and can also feed electricity back into larger grids when there is a surplus. The Army wants to build a “microgrid” at every base around the world by 2035. One of the most interesting experiments at the intersection of tech and energy is unfolding not in Silicon Valley but inside the Pentagon. ![]() | John Prettyman, USACE Sacramento District Solar panel arrays form a canopy at Fort Hunter Liggett, California. ![]()
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