Wartime technologies have always had a habit of working their way into post-war civilian applications – everything from microwaves to GPS to the internet, drones, jet
engines, duct tape and super glue, to name a few. These are high-end and seemingly simple technologies that have not only advanced an armed force’s success in any given conflict but also have provided a means of mitigating risk, cutting costs and saving lives.

Examples stemming from the Iraq War are recent advances made in solar technology and solar energy storage, as well as new critical ways of looking at how solar energy can ultimately reduce America’s reliance on foreign sources of energy – a reliance that, strategically speaking, has far too often resulted in armed conflict to protect America’s overseas oil interests either directly or indirectly.

Tactically speaking, there are newfound and ongoing conversations among military planners and logisticians as how best to mitigate risk and save lives on the always dangerous main supply routes (MSRs), where U.S. and allied fuel-resupply convoys have been regularly subjected to every form of enemy hazard. Fuel convoys have always been viewed as soft, albeit rich, targets by terrorists and insurgents: One man with a rocket-propelled grenade can wreak havoc on a multimillion-dollar fuel convoy guarded by vulnerable young Americans.

Hitting a fuel convoy almost always results in a lot of burning petroleum, ammunition cooking-off and roiling black smoke seen for miles. Then there are the untold monetary losses in terms of destroyed equipment and supplies, a temporary slowing – at least as perceived by the insurgents – of the U.S.-led effort, and the potential for a lot of casualties.

Nevertheless, convoys have been a critical – and often the only – means of resupplying the many forward operating bases (FOBs) constructed near the larger cities and the much smaller outposts and battle positions in the back country of any overseas operational theater. Fuel has always been needed for electrical power generators in the FOBs and outposts and for ground vehicles and aircraft.

There’s no way around the fact that traditional petroleum-based fuels are volatile targets, difficult to defend in war zones – and solar may well be the answer.

The findings of a U.S. Army study published several years ago, “Sustain the Mission Project: Casualty Factors for Fuel and Water Resupply Convoys,” determined that a “10 percent reduction in [fossil] fuel consumption over a five-year period could lead to a reduction of 35 fuel-related resupply casualties over the same period.”

The report added, “Casualty impacts (and other operational impacts) related to using
alternative energy and water technologies to sustain Army missions should be
evaluated in Army combat and combat support models over a wide range of theaters
and scenarios to better reflect the complex conditions and actions at the tactical and
theater levels.”

Additionally, “Army analysis agencies should evaluate the potential impacts, such as casualties, of different energy technologies in the battle space to include resupply convoys.”

Petroleum energy for fuel will continue to be a necessity, but it does not have to be the
primary and only means of fueling everything all the time, in all environs, without
considering other legitimate, cost-effective and infinitely safer options.

Solar solutions could change the fuel dynamics for America not only overseas but also here at home, where petroleum prices have skyrocketed over the last two decades, and far too many Americans have thrown up their hands in a sort of submissive acceptance that fuel costs will always be high – as will the various wars that play a part in those ever-rising fuel costs.

Solar as a means of generating electricity is one thing; solar as fuel for vehicles is
another. Granted, solar energy won’t fully replace fossil fuels for vehicles in the short run, but we need to begin thinking in terms of the limitless possibilities of this unlimited, totally clean, and – for the first time – truly affordable and storable energy resource.

Solar technology has existed for years. But the full fruit of commercial application has not – until now. Solar energy companies are now, like never before, enabling individuals and businesses to produce marketable, working energy. And they are able to do so at at- or below-market costs.

And solar could potentially and measurably save American lives overseas, which brings us back to our first and perhaps most salient point: Strategically speaking, solar energy is now fully capable of reducing – though perhaps not yet eliminating – our reliance on foreign sources of fuel. That in itself will save lives in terms of not having to deploy the vast number of troops America has traditionally needed in order to defend our gas and oil sources overseas.

And, again, if we parse it down to the tactical level, fewer and smaller convoys transporting less fuel on the miles and miles of MSRs crisscrossing the war-ravaged countries wherein U.S. troops are deployed will always mean fewer soldiers tasked with defending those convoys.

That in itself is worth advancing talks about solar.

Maj. Gen. Tom Mullikin is a military officer; founding principal of the South Carolina-based Mullikin Law Firm; and president of Global Eco Adventures, a nonprofit dedicated to visiting and studying the Earth’s fragile ecosystems. He can be reached at tommullikin@mullikinlaw.com.

A new solar array powering Middletown’s water treatment at the Higby reservoirs is expected to save the city about $9,000 every year in electricity bills.

Officials held a ribbon-cutting for the new solar project Thursday morning, but the array has been running for about a month.

The 714 panels in nine rows on a hill will power an estimated 85 percent of the Charles B. Bacon Water Filtration Plant, located on city-owned property in Middlefield, off Route 66.

The facility provides about 25 percent of the city’s clean water and is one of the largest energy users among municipal buildings.

“We recognize that good environmental policy and good economic policy go hand in hand,” said Mayor Daniel Drew. “When you take care of your environment it’s good for your bottom line as a community or as a business. There is a tremendous amount of money that we’re saving here on energy usage.”

The city signed a contract with Greenskies Renewable Energy, a local firm that has installed solar projects around the country. Greenskies also built the solar roof of the R. M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park, formerly known as the Remington Rand building.

Vice President of Construction John Beauton said the solar array allows the water treatment facility to prioritize using the electricity generated on site before purchasing electricity from the utility company.

Greenskies financed the project through federal energy programs, officials said. Construction began last fall.

“We’re adding another source of clean energy to our local facilities,” said state Sen. Len Suzio. “It’s a small bit in the overall plan, but that’s how you get big accomplishments done, one small step at a time.”

The common council approved the contract for the facility more than a year ago to set the price per kilowatt-hour of energy at 8.5 cents, compared with a current electricity rate of about 15 cents.

The 218-kilowatt solar system is a bit smaller than the 1,000-panel solar roof installed at the Keating building on Johnson Street; that array was estimated to save about $189,000 over the life of a 20-year contract.

Unused electricity generated at both sites can be sold to electricity providers for a credit to the city’s energy bill.

Acting Water and Sewer Director Joseph Fazzino said generating power on site will help keep costs down. The savings will be passed on to ratepayers, he said.

“With the solar project, we are able to produce clean, potable water using less electricity from the grid,” Fazzino said. “This is a very important project, especially now with people conserving more and more water, the demand for water is trending downward. Without this project we would eventually need to raise rates, so this will help us stabilize our water rates. Nobody really likes to have their water rates going up.”

MIDDLETOWN — Calling it a victory for the local environment and economy, officials Thursday praised the installation of a 714-panel solar array to help mitigate the effects of the “single largest energy hog in the city” — its water treatment plant.

These solar panels, installed in June by Greenskies Renewable Energy, on Middletown property adjacent to the Higby Water Treatment Facility at 260 Meriden Road, Middlefield, is projected to save the city 280,000 kWh of electricity per year.

“This is an important project, especially now with people conserving more and more water, and the demand for water is trending downward. Without this project, we would eventually need to raise rates,” said Joe Fazzino, acting director of Middletown Water & Sewer.

“It will produce clean water using less electricity from the grid, which, in turn, helps stabilize water rates we charge customers,” Fazzino added.

The arrays, installed at the facility on the Middletown line, are projected to power 85 percent of the facility’s electricity usage.

State Sen. Len Suzio, R-Meriden, and others were particularly pleased the city enlisted a Middletown-based small business to complete the project.

“We’re adding another source of clean energy to our local facilities. It’s a small bit in the overall plan, and overall impact to the environment, but that’s how you get big accomplishments done: one step at a time,” Suzio said.

Greenskies, which paid for the system and installation, will sell the power produced to Middletown at a discounted rate over the 20-year contract. The firm also installed arrays on the roof of the city-owned R.M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park on Johnson Street, where its office is based, as well as Wesleyan University, two in upstate New York and another at the Meriden Markham Airport.

In 2016, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,766 kilowatt hours, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The water residents drink goes through an intensive treatment process at the Charles B. Bacon Water Filtration Facility, officials said. The project is expected to save the city $9,000 annually in electricity costs, significantly reducing the environmental effects of burning fossil fuels.

Emission rates will now be one-tenth of previous output there.

The project, 6 years in the making, launched late last fall and was completed in early spring, said John Beauton, vice president of construction at Greenskies.

“This does a lot for Middletown. Being local, it’s very important to us to carry this message throughout the United States — even more so that we’re doing it here in Connecticut,” Beauton said.

“I’m confident that this will produce power that this plant needs throughout the day so they can operate their pumps efficiently and have sustainable energy as part of that platform,” he added.

“The building is going to pull power it needs from solar field first before it pulls from the grid,” Beauton said, as he led a tour of the fixed solar-powered system.

The panels don’t rotate with the sun’s position, he said, like others do in the northern and southwestern portions of the country.

“In the Northeast, the challenge with that is, with the winters we have, if the motors got frozen up or bound, the maintenance on a field like that is tremendous — so it definitely becomes beneficial to the user,” Beauton added.

In Connecticut and other parts of the northeastern United States, peak solar power production months are July through September, when the sun’s elevation is lower and there is less sunlight, he added. In the winter, particularly January and February, output is low because snowfall is concentrated during those months, Beauton said.

Jeff Hush, member of the city’s Clean Energy Task Force, represents low-income interests on the panel.

Comfortable, Healthy, Energy Efficient and Renewable Middletown, dubbed CHEER, is a collaboration between the task force, North End Action Team, Home Energy Services, New England Conservation Services, Sunlight Solar and others which hopes to lessen the city’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The task force is accelerating its attempts to improve housing costs for low- and middle-income communities in Middletown, who carry an energy burden disproportionate to their household earnings, he said.

“Low-income people pay a much higher percentage of their income on rent and energy. They often have problems paying their energy bills,” Hush said.

The task force is championing the building of more shared solar arrays over the next two to five years in Middletown, he said. Members are looking at possible places for panels, such as the former Connecticut Cleaners on Grand Street — now a brownfield site.

“A brownfield is a property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of, which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant,” according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“We’d like to convert places like that, and the roof of the Green Street Arts Center, into solar arrays, and have shared solar for local, low-income people. That’s the big push for the future of Middletown. The past, and what was done today, is a wonderful step and it’s very encouraging,” Hush said.

The task force has found working with Connecticut Green Bank and solar companies helps with financing such projects.

“It puts the burden and the risk partially on the company, and not just on the individuals or the shared low-income community groups,” Hush said.

“The hardest part of improving low-income housing is the element of getting renewable energy, but we’re really dedicated to making that happen,” he added.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.