TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --
This
month marks the one-year anniversary of the Air Force's largest operational
solar array, located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
The 16.4-megawatt solar farm, built under a
25-year power purchase agreement, was a joint effort between the Air Force
Civil Engineer Center, Davis-Monthan, SunEdison, LLC and Tucson Electric Power.
The array is exceeding expectations.
"We expected the array to provide
35-percent of our total power needs," said Lt. Col. Brian Stumpe, 355th
Civil Engineer Squadron commander. "However, our calculations show it is
providing well over 40-percent of our total need, and over 100-percent of our
daytime energy usage. This amounts to a $500,000 per year savings for Davis-Monthan
and the Air Force."
In its first 10 months, the array produced
33,083,404 kWh of electricity, enough to power over 3,600 homes. The base,
before constructing the array, paid 8.6 cents per kilowatt-hour for
electricity. Under the power purchase agreement, the rate for the power
supplied from the solar array is 4.5 cents per kWh, with an annual increase of
1.5 percent.
"We are very pleased with the performance
of the Davis-Monthan array," said Frederick Cade, renewable energy program
manager at AFCEC. "Projects like this go a long way toward meeting Air
Force energy goals, and can serve as a model for other installations."
Renewable energy projects like the D-M array
are part of the Air Force's overall strategy to provide energy resiliency,
reliability and security, as well as cost savings. Power systems located on
secure installations deliver necessary predictability, and dollar savings free
up resources that can be reallocated to other mission priorities.
"For a minimal investment in manpower,
projects like this provide substantial savings," Stumpe said. "Since
we don't own the project, our civil engineers are freed up to focus on the core
mission of operating and sustaining the air base and generating air
power."
The D-M array also benefits the base's local
utility, Tucson Electric Power, said Timothy Davis, senior director of customer
solutions and business development at TEP.
"The Arizona Corporation Commission has
implemented the Renewable Energy Standard that requires utilities to increase
their production of renewable energy," Davis said. "TEP had a goal of
four percent. The Davis-Monthan array has helped us exceed that goal."
The Air Force continues to expand its
renewable energy program. Currently, two solar arrays are in the works- a
19-megawatt expansion of an existing 14.7-megawatt array under construction at
Nellis AFB, Nevada, and a 20-megawatt solar farm in the proposal phase at
Vandenberg AFB, California. Each are larger
than the D-M array.
"The Air Force has a goal that every base
will implement some sort of renewable energy generation," Stumpe said.
"This array has exceeded our goal by 36 percent, which contributes to
overall Air Force energy savings. We're proud of our work here."