The Massachusetts Military Reservation needs power for its groundwater treatment plants, so Air Force and Army officials are working on getting up to seven wind turbines installed in the next two years, reports the Cape Cod Times. The reservation includes Otis Air National Guard Base, and USAF has participated for a number of years with the Army in environmental clean up actions. Cleaning contaminated groundwater with electricity generated by fossil-fuel burning plants creates its own environmental problems. Using the turbines would cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Air Force is under contract to build a 398-foot, 1,500-kilowatt turbine, which USAF officials expect will reduce the quantity of electricity they need to buy from fuel-burning power plants by 30 percent. The turbine will cost $4.6 million and is supposed to be complete by 2009.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.