US Army speeds up move off-grid
The recently unveiled Army Energy Initiatives Task Force has launched its most ambitious project yet: a 50-megawatt biofuels power plant on Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Army and Hawaii Electric Company (HECO) officials said talks about the plant are in the early stages, and the two sides are working on a memorandum of understanding regarding the project. Army officials said the service typically would prefer to lease the land from HECO for the plant and buy some of the power it produces from the utility company. In that case, HECO would build and operate it.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii, known as K-Bay, has a goal of being off the grid by 2015 and wants to build another massive biofuels power plant that would be opened by that year on a budget of $50m. Other details are not immediately available.…