Comments on: Geothermal Energy Could Make the Department of Defense a Supplier of U.S. Energy, Not Just a Consumer

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:26:18 +0000

The Coso geothermal field is located on US DOD lands at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. The facility produces ~240 MWe, way more than is needed by NAWS, from 9 geothermal steam turbines. The power is sold into the grid due to the routing of transmission lines in that part of the world, but the Navy gets substantial royalties from the sale of that power. The Fallon Naval Air Station has a geothermal project in the works and the DOD is working to develop geothermal resources on other sites. Across the western states and in the Gulf there is ample geothermal resource on DOD lands that could be developed for power generation. As technology develops, this could extend across the whole US.

By: Tina Casey

Tina Casey — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:54:46 +0000

regarding hydrogen derived from gas, researchers are developing processes that use renewable energy to obtain hydrogen by splitting water molecules

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:24:42 +0000

A while ago, while researching hydrogen fuel cells, I came across an article that said the US Government was turning to them to power their vehicles. Yay! As the government, particularly the military does, so eventually will the rest of America do (note the Internet for example).

However, my heart sank as I read on, that they had found the best and cheapest form of obtaining hydrogen was–you guessed it–gas. So in a sense there would be no gain, other than lower emissions. But we would still be dependent on a non-renewable energy resource.

This article lifts my heart again at the prospect of large-scale projects like this becoming the norm. If the military can find a way to make a net gain off of geothermal, or any other kind of renewable energy, besides the prospect of reselling that extra energy which could help US energy supplies and fund the military, there is also the strong possibility that anything they learn and invent from this venture, can eventually be passed down to corporations and the every-day American.

And that means, eventually, we can all be using renewable energy.

Yay, again!