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U.S. Military opens 16 million acres for renewable development

U.S. Military opens 16 million acres for renewable development U.S. Army Corps of Engineers installed Solar station at Nellis Airforce Base, Nevada (source: flickr/ USACEpublicaffairs, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 15 Aug 2012

U.S. Departments of Defense and the Interior will open 16 million acres for renewable energy development, of which 13 million acres are in the western U.S.. The U.S. Army has further started accepting bids for renewable energy contracts and installations.

Reported by Forbes last week, the U.S. Department of Defense is planning to open up 16 million acres of its land for renewable energy development. This includes among other renewable technologies, geothermal development.

The Secretaries of Defense and the Interior signed an MOU to work together promoting renewable projects on public land.

Of those 16 million acres, 13 million are in the western United States.

As part of that the U.S. Army has started accepting bides for renewable energy installations to be deployed on military bases and facilities and will sign contracts to buy electricity from renewable energy projects, including geothermal, for up to 30 years.

The Army will buy the power directly and not via a local utility.

Source: Forbes, Forbes