Solar Panels Advance on Camp Lejeune
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
The military will have solar panels for hot water installed in 900 homes at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, making the base one of the largest residential producers of solar thermal power. Each house on the base will have one panel on its roof that will cover 75 percent of its hot water needs.
The project will be funded partly through subsidies provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which made more than $16 billion available for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through the Energy Department.
“A lot of this is possible through federal and state tax investment credits,” said Matt Lynn, a project leader at Actus Lend Lease, a procurement company that is coordinating the project on behalf of the military. “We can make this a financially viable deal.”
Actus negotiated a deal with FLS Energy, a solar energy company that is selling the panels to the base at a reduced cost. The agreement calls for the military to repay FLS for the panels over 12 years. Once the panels are paid off, the energy will essentially be free. The average lifetime of such panels is estimated at 20 to 25 years, Mr. Lynn said.
He declined to give the price, but said that it was about 20 percent lower than the cost of purchasing the electricity off the grid.
The move is one of several initiatives by the military to embrace renewable energy. Last year, The Times took note of a project to install solar walls to improve heating efficiency at Fort Drum in upstate New York.
The installations are under way and will be completed by December.
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