Civil Engineers recognize Earth "Day" all year

  • Published
  • By Joe Gootee
  • Eglin Energy Management Office
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Use less electricity, natural gas, and water. Recycle, reuse, and reduce. Replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescents lights.

What will you do to commemorate Earth Day on April 22?

Senator Gaylord Nelson helped establish Earth Day over four decades ago because he was troubled that "the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of our country."

Since then, environmental concerns have led to the establishment of many laws, executive orders, and goals that require government employees, including Airmen, to be environmentally conscientious. For example, by 2015, the Air Force is required to reduce facility energy by 30 percent from the 2003 baseline; reduce water usage 16 percent from the 2007 baseline; and increase use of renewable energy to 10 percent of the electricity consumed.

In 2010, the Eglin Energy Management Center initiated an aggressive energy awareness, conservation and reduction program. This program includes the three-day holiday weekend "Power Down on Energy Waste" campaigns and the quarterly facility energy contests which, to date, have saved Team Eglin over 3.2 million kilowatt hours of energy and $395,000 in energy savings.

One of Eglin's largest single energy initiatives is a $6.7 million digital control and energy management project. This project will upgrade the current systems to monitor energy use, alert operators to systems operating outside established parameters, and to sustain savings and reductions in energy intensity into the future. This system will be the heart of the energy management efforts and will connect to every existing meter and energy management control system node on our installations. In addition, it will provide the data needed to measure success toward reaching DoD and AF goals.

In 2010, more than six percent of all facility energy used by the Air Force came from renewable energy sources, surpassing federal renewable energy goals. Seven solar projects have been awarded and are in construction and 16 more, including wind and waste-to-energy, are expected to be awarded this year.

On Eglin, a ground source heat pump is being installed at Test Area A-6 on the Santa Rosa Island. This system will use the earth as a "heat sink" to heat and cool more efficiently. The energy management center is also working with Gulf Power to investigate a biomass plant that would burn wood chips to generate electricity.

The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment has also funded a research project on base to use bacteria to digest garbage and generate a biogas that can be used to generate electricity while producing valuable compost. Eglin also has a project to heat the base pool using the suns energy. This solar thermal pool heater will save 60 percent of the water heating cost.