RENEWS will act as a standalone power system for communications and can power two or three laptops continuously, as long as electricity is generated by its renewable energy source. (Source: US Army RDECOM)
Needs of the Army has given us some great things. Supposedly nylon (polyamide) was developed as synthetic fibers for bomb sights in WWII airplanes. Now nylon is everywhere. If the Army can develop a technology that can generate green electricity in remote locations, there is high potential for commercial applications.
I was thinking the same thing. Has our leadership gone mad? The army, navy and air force are assigned the difficult task of killing enemy troops- not following failed agendas of the left. 1 in 46 supply trucks doesn't make it? That is nearly 97% do. In any war that is pretty good odds.
Plus, you waste two men carrying a lousy few hundred watt-hours of power? Let them carry the same in gasoline or diesel and you have a lot more power to do a lot more things.
But I do admit, that same power for communications would be useful. But laptops? Really? But I guess video games are as important as bullets.
First point: The military doesn't need more damned acronyms.
Second: I noticed that this was PART of the stimulus act which proves that it's another waste of money.
Third: What the hell does the military need with "envinromentally friendly" things. When I was in the Navy the very purpose of our toys was to kill people and break things on a large scale. Also don't you get lead poisoning from the bullets they just shot you with?
Fourth (and most important): YOUR HAULING AROUND 100 lbs of stuff to power TWO laptops. Seems to me that the fuel consumption required to run an Army tank would make the energy consumption of the TWO LAPTOPS look not to impressive.
...and if the Tank runs out of fuel the laptops probably won't do you much good because you just blew up the Wi-Fi hot spot that could have called for more diesel.
That's a pretty good guess about a generational change, Ann. That's happening in corporations as well. An army of 40-something men and women are taking leadership roles in renewable energy and sustainability programs in corporations. Looks like the same thing is happening in the military. This generation cut its teeth on Earth Day teachings in elementary school during the 70s.
I agree, Rob, the idea of renewable energy breakthroughs coming from the military does seem improbable, at least historically. But so did a Global Information Grid based on commercial comms technology, and portable electronics based on commercial technology platforms, yet in recent years both have happened (and a lot more). I don't know why the shift occurred, but I wonder if, in part, it was a generational change at the management level, as has occurred in industry.
I agree, Chas, Chas. For a couple decades now, the military has been getting smarter and smarter about its technology. I have a nephew who was in a tank in Iraq. I asked what it was like inside the tank. He said he spent his time inside the tank sitting in front of a computer screen.
Hard to believe for a military organization but RDECOM has a flicker photo stream. There's a photo of the overall system including the wind generator on flicker at
Click on the image and look at the previous and next images in the stream for more pictures.
How ironic it would be if major breakthroughs in renewal energy came from the military. That very well may happen. For decades, the military was the antithesis of clean energy, at least in perception.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
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