The Nellis Airforce Base And Solar Power: Is It A Green Military?

There's been a reasonable degree of media coverage this solar power project that the US Military is engaging in to provide the Nevada Nellis Airforce base near Los Vegas with 25% solar energy. The project is to involve the use of 70,000+ solar panels and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2008. Everybody seems to be hailing this as a bit of a breakthrough for the Bush administration, and the US Defence Department is basking nicely in the project's reflected green glory.

However the humanitarian credentials of the United States military are not well established. It is not their job to be humanitarian. Their charge is defence of their nation. What is of concern though is the US military's apparent willingness to give up land for reduced power bills. Perhaps the military requires this non fossil fuel based energy supply and if this is the case this project is not simply the feel good public relations exercise it is being painted as.


The United States Government has become a world leader in denial about global climate change. Their insistence on a business-as-usual approach to our current polluting methods of energy production flies in the face of established scientific fact. There has been widespread acknowledgment of the effects of increased carbon dioxide emissions on surface and atmospheric temperatures and weather patterns. This is coinciding with the either already realized or imminent peak in oil production.

What is the real reason why is this project being built? There are only two possibilities that seem logically possible.

First, the United States Government may have decided there is a real need to pursue renewable energy on a large scale. The USA's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol or make any serious Federal initiatives to reduce Carbon emissions combined with their continued military involvement in the oil rich Middle East seem to deny this as a plausible explanation.

Secondly, it is possible that the US Government has realized there is an immediate need to power its military bases at least in part with a secure energy source that will not be depleted. The fact that the Nellis Airforce base will be consuming 25% less fossil fuel energy and is therefore less reliant on it will not go unnoticed. Perhaps that extra fuel oil that will no longer be required for electricity production will be used to power fuel hungry military vehicles.

Whether this is a genuine renewable energy push by the US or another move to support its military dominance in the face of receding oil supplies is yet to be seen. If it is an expression of a change of direction for the US in terms of energy production we will see a massive Federal push to power the nation on renewable resources such as solar and wind power. If more military bases are powered at least in part by renewable energy then it will be clear that this is nothing more than a strategic plan to maximize the USA's fighting capacity.