The Army continues to explore new designs for getting power to soldiers, with research aimed at using the sun and wind to provide renewable forms of energy in the field, particularly in dangerous or remote areas.
The US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command's (RDECOM's) Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center is working on two microgrid systems, based on renewable energy, that can work independently of a typical type of electrical grid.
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)
The systems -- Reusing Existing Natural Energy from Wind and Solar (RENEWS) and Renewable Energy for Distributed Undersupplied Command Environments (REDUCE) -- are two of a number of projects the Army is working on to provide alternative and more user- and environmentally-friendly energy sources to soldiers in remote locations. Others include the design of wearable battery packs and batteries that are made of lighter materials to help ease the burden of soldiers that need to carry power on foot.
RENEWS and REDUCE, in part, are aimed at reducing the risk and cost associated with bringing fossil fuels to soldiers in combat situations -- the Army says it is often difficult to secure routes for fuel truck convoys. In fact, one in every 46 suffers a casualty while attempting to bring fuel to soldiers for energy. The projects also are aimed at reducing the military's dependency on fossil fuels as a cost-savings measure, as well as to relieve the impact of fuel on the environment.
Army scientists are a bit further along in the design of the RENEWS project than REDUCE, having already created prototypes that are undergoing internal testing. The project began in 2009 as part of an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act program for photovoltaics.
RENEWS combines a series of solar panels and a wind turbine that work together as a self-sustaining communications system for remote locations. The system is fairly compact, weighing about 100lb and stored in two cases weighing about 70lb each, according to the Army. As long as there is daily power coming from its solar and wind sources, the system can power two or three laptops continuously. When the renewable sources are not generating electricity, RENEWS's storage component can provide five hours of peak-demand power.
The REDUCE project aims to build a system that is a bit more complex than RENEWS. The Army intends REDUCE to offer intelligent power management and distribution that can adjust its output as needed, as well as provide plug-and-play for devices, with automatic device detection and power distribution. It will take about three years to build REDUCE, which will be a network of various power systems designed to be towed on a Humvee trailer.
While RENEWS is made entirely of renewable resources, REDUCE combines both renewable energy sources as well as fossil-fuel generators to help reduce power consumption.
Given its relatively heavy weight, I'm assuming this design isn't meant to be carried around by soldiers in the field, but rather, to man some remote field station. Looking at the pic, (which is hard to interpret BTW), got me thinking that this looks a lot like fabric, maybe not for uniforms, but for a tent or some other mobile structure. That got me thinking why couldn't clothing or canvas be the so-called "canvas" for a renewable energy source???
It's good to know the military is investigating portable renewable energy sources. This may help speed development of same in the commercial sector. Regarding energy harvesting materials, like clothing, several fabrics are in R&D, such as PowerFelt http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=239901 but they don't yet produce enough for portable electronic systems such as those soldiers use. These systems Elizabeth's article describes look to be a big improvement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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