Navy Goes Solar in Norfolk

Navy builds solar power farm near Norfolk base

The Navy has completed construction of the largest solar energy project in Virginia, a 10-acre landscape of black solar panels in neat rows within sight of the Chesapeake Bay and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

The solar farm contains more than 8,600 panels, each bolted onto steel stilts in a marshy field called Monkey Bottom, just outside the fenceline of Norfolk Naval Station. Together, they can generate up to 2.1 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 200 homes, said Michelle Perry, project manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

That's only about 2 percent of the electricity required to run the Norfolk Navy base, the largest of its kind in the world, "but you have to start somewhere," Perry said.

So it takes 10 acres to provide enough power for 2% of the bases energy requirement, or 500 acres, or about 0.8 square miles to provide enough power to provide 100% of the power requirement for the base.  I presume that does not include the power storage system needed to store power during the day to power the base at night, on cloudy days, and during solar eclipses.

And who paid for this, how much?

The project cost $21 million and was part of President Barack Obama's stimulus package. According to Pentagon figures, the government allocated more than $335 million in stimulus money for renewable-power projects at bases - a move intended to speed the military's conversion from fossil fuels to cleaner energy, and to advance green technology.

Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, signed executive orders for the Department of Defense to pursue alternative energy. One mandate calls for each base to be using renewable sources for 50 percent of its power by 2020.

The solar project will help the Norfolk Navy base meet this requirement, said Paula Teague, an energy management specialist with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

Silly question, you knew the answer to the first part of the question ahead of time.  Over the short run, we borrowed the money from the Chinese, and over the long run, our kids, or the immigrants who substitute for the kids we don't have, will get the bill, with interest.

And solar energy is the single most expensive type of energy there is.  So why are the feds forcing the Navy to build it?  Because the military is big, and such wasteful projects easily get buried in the weeds.