Maybe the military can run their trucks and planes off wind power?
Disrupting the Borg is expensive and time consuming!
Recent Comments
John on The Price Of Telling The Truth… Don Gaddes on Seven Year Drought Killed 40%… Bill Sokeland on NSIDC : Arctic Was Ice Free In… Notes To Ponder on 45 Years Since Paul Ehrlich Wa… gator69 on A Proof That Greenhouse Gas Dr… gator69 on Toto Has Moved! Menicholas on Toto Has Moved! Sir Charles on A Proof That Greenhouse Gas Dr… Sir Charles on A Proof That Greenhouse Gas Dr… Ed Darrell on Phil Jones Removing The 1940…
Can they really be that dumb? Any of those dimwits wonder why they don’t just drive up to the filling station and fill up with petrol or diesel? Or why they don’t just plug in the existing grid? Oh, wait, maybe because it isn’t a viable option. So, what? We’re going to build miles of transmission lines in war areas? No way anything could possibly go wrong with that line of thinking.
Wonder what the Taliban count is for Predator attacks?
Run trucks/planes off of wind? I think not. Evan a cursory examination of the Navy’s plan (abstract found here: http://www.navy.mil/local/nee/) shows that’s not what the Navy has in mind.
People are getting killed transporting deisel to forward bases. The less fuel used the fewer people die. The diesel being transported is used in generators to create electricity that is used to cool/heat tents. Improvements in tent materials, microgrid power management and incorporation of renewables such as microhydro can significantly reduce fuel consumption thereby saving lives.
Most of the Navy’s ships are deisel powered. Improvements in power production and/or the incorporation of lower cost/higher density fuels has the potential to reduce costs substatially (we’re talking of 100s of millions) and increase time on station.
Recently the Navy flew an F18 using biofuel, when they set their mind to it the Navy has a pretty good track record of acomplishing amazing things.
Most of the Navy’s ships are powered by Gas Turbines, the same fuel guzzling thing that powers planes, same as the M1 Tank.
Power to weight ratio, it’s the cat’s meow, but even at idle speeds it’s guzzling diesel, and I don’t care what you fill it with.
The logistics cost to support our troops is horrendous and is driven mostly by the need to supply fuel.
It is a travesty that the US military is still stuck in the fossil fuel age for base power, heating and cooling.
We deliver fuel at exorbitant expense, about $100/gallon plus human lives, by truck across more than 1000 miles of poor roads through an antagonistic population to do what should be done by a small, self contained nuclear reactor such as Toshiba has on offer.