Construction has started on a six-megawatt solar array at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This is the most ambitious solar energy project in the academy’s history and is part of the academy leadership’s broader vision to generate 100 percent of the institution’s electricity needs via on-base renewable energy sources by 2015. The new array will occupy 30 acres on the academy’s southeast corner when it is complete in summer 2011. “It will cut our power from burning fossil fuels by 11 percent and, by the way, save us a half million dollars a year,” said Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, academy superintendent. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided the funding for the $18.3-million solar project, which is a partnership between the academy, Colorado Springs Utilities, and SunPower of San Jose, Calif. (USAFA report by John Van Winkle)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
