Natural Security Blog: Post
Setting Energy and Climate Goals: Air Force Academy
March 11, 2010 | Posted by Christine Parthemore - 8:17am | 4 Comments
As another leg of my trip to NREL and NORTHCOM a few weeks ago with colleagues Commander Herb Carmen and Will Rogers, we swung by the Air Force Academy to check out their energy work. My biggest take-away may be that they have the largest, best-equipped S&T labs I’ve ever seen at a university. It definitely plucked my nerd heartstrings.
But to get to the real point, here is the Academy’s energy vision (pdf):
The 2008 United States Air Force Academy Energy Strategic Plan details a vision to improve our stewardship of fiscal and natural resources, by becoming a leader in the world of renewable energy and involving the 8,200 cadets, faculty and employees of USAFA. The vision is to be a “Net-Zero” electricity installation by 2015 and a carbon-neutral installation by 2025. These challenging and lofty goals raise the bar for the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense and the nation.
Love the linking of energy and climate goals. Notably, they have several key enablers of success at work here: leadership instruction; some motivated individuals; a good partner in their local utility; and funding from the stimulus package. These ingredients have to date added up to their thorough mapping of their alternative energy potential, lots of ongoing research and a solar installation on its way.
The DOD Energy Blogger, himself an Academy grad, described another important aspect of this location back in December thusly:
…tons of potential for cadet learning and culture change. All of which should impact the AF more broadly as the grads move out into leadership positions in the "Real Air Force."
Cheers to that, and while I don’t undermine its importance, I’m thinking that lessons learned they might share from working with a willing utility partner may be even more important for fellow Air Force and DOD installations better meeting energy requirements – something I studied up on about a year back but haven’t been paying as much attention to as of late. If anyone knows of any good research on how different types (or regions) of utilities are or are not integrating renewable, let us know. In the meantime, thumbs up and thanks to the Air Force Academy.
Photo: A 200-milliJoule pulse laser at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. The laser is used for a variety of experiments, including tests to determine how "pushing" sulfur into a silicon-based solar cell increases the cell's efficiency. Courtesy of Rachel Boettcher and the U.S. Air Force.
Social implications wise,
Social implications wise, our USAF cadets are going to be the leaders of a resource that will redefine the energy landscape. Analysts such as Thomas Barnett (Book: Pentagon's New Map) have been calling for the US to develop a "System Administration" (SysAdmin) force, which is heavy on Operations Other Than War, to compliment the "Leviathan" force, which enables the more or less 'quick' collectivization of security (projection of force anytime, anywhere). In terms of counterinsurgency, the Leviathans do the heavy lifting (track, capture, and kill) and the SysAdmins do the post-war stabilization and reconstruction work (ensuring access to basic resources, such as energy). The recalibration of the military, which we see here, is toward training a new generation to be savvy enough to do the former and the latter. Given this, one generation down the line, there will be a symbiotic relationship between 'development' and 'security'.
This 'New American Security' is going to raise new and interesting social, ethical and legal questions centering around revising notions of the 'proper' place of military involvement. For instance, a deontological approach will assert that the United States has a moral obligation to 'connect up' the weak and guarantee access to basic resources such as energy (after all, the philosophy of 'raising all ships' runs strong in liberal veins). An emphatically utilitarian camp will agree and say that developing connectivity in the 'gap regions' also bolsters the security of America and its allies. With this given, I wonder if the convergence of SysAdmin and Leviathan capabilities might change the accepted Rules of Engagement and thus explicitly modify the security stakes.
This new security and new responsibility looks fruitful from the inside out. The problem is that everybody does not feel the same way. Cultures that see globalization as a threat to their way of life will naturally conflict with this philosophy. The challenge will be for intelligence to stay on the same page as the military, such that both work with the same framework in mind and toward the same aims - so that the way forward can go on smoothly. If these two ordinarily very discrete security communities are not on the same page then we will run into significant strategic obstacles on the operational stage.
We know where the military stands now and will stand in the future (in terms of natural security), but where is intelligence, to date? To this effect, it would be interesting to do a comparative study between military and intelligence facets of grand strategy related to natural security. That relationship is, to me, a critical fault line, which can either go really well or really badly.
"We know where the military
"We know where the military stands now and will stand in the future (in terms of natural security), but where is intelligence, to date? To this effect, it would be interesting to do a comparative study between military and intelligence facets of grand strategy related to natural security. That relationship is, to me, a critical fault line, which can either go really well or really badly." -- I agree, that would be quite an interesting study! As far as I can tell there are no major rifts on natural security issues. Some different pacing among various elements, but that's to be expected.http://coomararunodaya.com.
http://coomararunodaya.com.
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