WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has significantly transformed from where it started, from the first flight to modern times. That also includes our stance from the energy portion at Wright-Patterson AFB.
During Energy Action Month each October, the Air Force highlights energy’s critical role in operations and mission continuity by encouraging smart use and management for installations, ground vehicles and aircraft.
With a theme of “Powering Possibility,” this year’s campaign reflects the Air Force’s forward-looking approach to energy innovation and powering the future force.
With the ever-growing energy actions across the Department of Defense, Wright-Patt has been making major leaps and bounds to provide resiliency in the energy sector. The most recent resiliency upgrade has been decentralizing our steam plants and providing high-temp hot water at the end-user site.
Today, we are currently looking at many different aspects of energy resiliency. There are a few areas that have seen an improved energy resiliency. While we funnel projects to meet these goals, we also look at the future of Air Force Civil Engineer Center pilot programs to see how we can apply those to here.
WPAFB’s Energy Office has been looking at alternative-energy storage and power generation. For example, many parking lots on base have shown a great benefit to provide solar and energy storage for how the base is laid out. Using existing land resources, we can provide clean energy to mission partners but also benefit motorists with some shade for vehicles.
With how fast the energy sector has grown, it seems like it is more feasible to apply renewable technology. We are using our resources to see how other industries are approaching this as well. The University of Dayton has done its own solar project and Greenville has set up windmills.
Throughout the Air Force, there have been multiple renewables we are aiming to be part of. This will provide us resiliency in the long term.