Posted on 05/21/2015 8:06:38 AM PDT by Enlightened1
After tapping into solar, wind, geothermal and now natural gas resources on post, Fort Knox has become the first U.S. military installation to go “off the grid.”
The installation announced Wednesday it added 28 natural gas wells to its arsenal of energy-creating sources which already includes almost 6,000 geothermal wells, two wind turbines and 3.59 megawatts of solar panels. With the additions, Fort Knox will be able to produce more energy than it needs — about 44 megawatts a day. It typically uses about 20 daily, but has approached 50 before, officials said.
With that kind of power, when Hardin County goes dark from an outage, Fort Knox still will be bright, Garrison Commander Col. T.J. Edwards said.
“This is kind of our Super Bowl,” he said at a “cord unplugging” — not ribbon cutting — ceremony on post Wednesday. “This is our Kentucky Derby.”
During the ceremony, the post tapped into more and more of its own energy resources and reduced the amount of megawatts it was receiving from its utility to about 5 — “a small buffer.”
“The only reason we’re not going all the way to zero today is because ... there are some safety concerns” about accidentally “back feeding the outside utility,” said Greg Lee, an operation engineer for Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation.
Using the methane gas below the installation to create its own electricity will save the post about $8 million annually, bringing total energy savings to $18 million in one of the Army’s — and Fort Knox’s — highest expense categories during a time when the post has been hit hard by cuts and is bracing for the possibility of more.
“We’re going to give back the gold (to the public) because of this project,” Edwards said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewsenterprise.com ...
Ten years ago when NG prices spiked, you couldn’t give away NG powered turbines. Since Fort Knox has its own NG wells, this will not be a problem.
““We’re going to give back the gold (to the public) because of this project,” Edwards said.”
at the expense of our military, you imbecile
The Gold that’s not there anymore?
Our whole universe of military assets are in the line of fire under this administration. I seriously doubt the bases will be energy independent for any benefit of ours. Things are upside down.
Obama is too quiet and getting by with staying that way.
It is eerie how many generals are now speaking out. I can’t tell if it’s for real entirely, or a political maneuver by our side. But with the veil off the Ben Laden trove, the generals privy to the facts and the docs are plenty chatty.
At campaign time, however, is anything ever really what it seems?
It's even worse, when laws require the power companies to buy excess power for the same price as they sell it. This means that they have to keep the coal fired plants humming even when no one is buying it, just in case a cloud blows over the solar panels, or a lull in the wind comes along.
When they cut the wires, and take down the power poles, then they're "off the grid".
Mr. Goldfinger makes new plan.
How is having your own gas wells being “off the grid”? I thought fossil fuels were the devil.
the facts: Fort Knox is now going to be lit by burning natural gas.
the media image: Hey, look at the two wind turbines!
95% of the energy comes from hydrocarbon energy, but the article focuses and touts the wind and solar toys they installed.
Why does more and more of the world looking like the Gamma World before the apocalypse?.
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