Officials with the Air Force Academy and Colorado power companies on Monday dedicated the academy’s new six-megawatt solar energy array. “At the strategic level, a lot of us talk about getting serious about the renewable energy business. We did it.” said Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould. The array will provide about 11 percent of the academy’s power—around 12,000 megawatt hours per year, or enough to power more than 1,200 average homes, said academy officials. The array is expected to save the academy about $1 million per year in energy costs over its 25-year design lifetime, and it moves the institution closer to its objective of generating 100 percent of its electricity needs on base by 2020. Colorado Springs Utilities won the contract for the array; SunPower Corp. oversaw its construction, which began last November. (Colorado Springs report by Don Branum)
Congress is making moves to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, but lawmakers have only a few days left to clear the procedural hurdles necessary to ensure troops get paid Nov. 14. The issue is particularly pressing for tens of thousands of uniformed personnel in the Air National…
