The Department of Defense’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) has announced 27 new projects to demonstrate emerging energy technologies on military installations through its Installation Energy Test Bed initiative. This initiative plays a key role in testing, evaluating, and scaling up innovative new energy technologies to improve the department’s energy security and reduce its facility energy costs. A list of the selected projects may be found below.

The Department has 300,000 buildings on its installations and spends nearly $4 billion a year on the energy needed to operate them. Demonstrations generate the cost and performance data needed to validate promising technologies, allowing them to be fielded and commercialized more rapidly.  These technologies will enable DoD’s installations to operate using less energy, and they will improve energy security by allowing installations to maintain critical activities even if the commercial electric grid is disrupted.

The 27 projects were competitively selected from the 575 proposals submitted by private firms, universities and federal organizations. The fiscal 2012 awards cover five areas: smart microgrids and energy storage to increase the energy security of DoD’s installations; advanced component technologies to improve building energy efficiency; advanced building energy management and control technologies; tools and processes for design, assessment, and decision-making associated with energy use and management; and technologies for renewable energy generation on installations.

For more information on the ESTCP Installation Energy Test Bed Initiative and its associated technology demonstration projects, visit http://www.serdp-estcp.org/Featured-Initiatives/Installation-Energy. 

FY 2012 Awards for ESTCP Installation Energy Technology Demonstrations

3M Corporation: Energy Reduction Through Real-Time Electricity Monitoring

: Fort Bliss, TX and Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ

: The 3M Energy Analyzer is a tool that aggregates energy consumption data and depicts those data in a way that enables users to visualize their electrical energy usage and cost in real-time. This project will demonstrate that Service members in DoD barracks and personnel in non-residential buildings who have access to real-time electrical data will reduce their electricity usage significantly more than occupants who are just exposed to more traditional methods of creating awareness.

Autodesk Inc.: Rapid Energy Modeling Workflow Demonstration Project

: CASE Technologies; Design & Construction Strategies LLC; Army Corps of Engineers

: TBD

: The Rapid Energy Modeling is a tool that can quickly, accurately, and cost effectively predict annual energy consumption for individual buildings and provide a useful simple building model. This project will demonstrate the effectiveness of this tool for DoD buildings and validate its accuracy for broad DoD implementation.

Cogenra Solar Inc.: Solar Cogeneration of Electricity and Hot Water at DoD Installations

: Adroit Solar

: Naval Base Ventura County, CA; Camp Parks, CA

: Cogenra’s technology combines PV and solar hot water (SHW) technologies into a single integrated solar cogeneration system that extracts much of the sun’s incident power as high-value electricity and delivers the rest as useful heat. This project will demonstrate the energy production and cost effectiveness for DoD applications and develop design tools to accelerate its implementation across DoD.

Dais Analytic: Installation of a Nanotechnology Membrane HVAC System

: Generation 4; AltaSim Technologies

: Robins AFB, GA

: This project will demonstrate for the first time an advanced dedicated outside air system that incorporates a patented nanotechnology membrane that is highly permeable to water and highly impermeable to air. This design will allow energy efficient dehumidification of outdoor air to occur without substantial temperature change and enable indoor humidity to be controlled separately from temperature, thereby reducing the energy required to manage DoD buildings.

Eaton Corporation: Distributed Storage Inverter and Legacy Generator Integration Plus Renewables Solution for Microgrids

: U.S. Army ERDC-CERL; Electricore, Inc.

: Fort Sill, OK

: This project will demonstrate the ability to operate a secure microgrid with natural gas generators and renewable energy sources without long term battery energy storage. This microgrid solution will provide DoD with higher reliability and energy surety and minimize the needs for load dedicated costly storage.

Ener-G-Rotors, Inc.: Increasing Efficiency by Maximizing Electrical Output

: West Point, NY

: This project will demonstrate the waste heat to electricity conversion potential of a modular, drop-in organic rankine cycle system that incorporates a unique trichoidal gear expander designed to achieve high efficiencies at low temperatures and thus increase electricity production from low quality waste heat.

FirstFuel Software, Inc.: Rapid Building Assessment 

: Cadmus Group

: TBD

: This project will demonstrate the Rapid Building Assessment tool for DoD buildings, a software powered information service for accelerative energy efficiency adoption across building portfolios. The tool uses statistical methods and advanced data mining techniques to provide building-specific performance benchmarks and custom recommendations.

Honeywell International Inc.: Automated Demand Response for Energy Sustainability

: LBNL; U.S. Army ERDC-CERL; Akuacom;  Southern California Edison

: Fort Irwin, CA

: This project will demonstrate an Open Automated Demand Response communications and control technology and validate how DoD can participate in emerging electric grid ancillary services markets. These control strategies are implemented in the installation’s Energy Management System to adjust the operation of the building and other electric loads in response to ancillary services commands and demand response signals.

Honeywell International Inc.: Model-Driven Energy Intelligence

: U.S. Army ERDC-CERL

: Fort Jackson, SC

: This project will demonstrate an innovative building information model with medium fidelity that can be applied to many existing DoD buildings. Coupled with energy metering and asset-level monitoring, this tool will enable rapid identification of chronic and recurring operating inefficiencies.

Morgan Solar Inc.: Scalable Sun Simba HCPV Demonstration on DoD Lands

: TBD

: This project will demonstrate an innovative, highly efficient, simplified, and inexpensive concentrating solar module that uses a patented light guide solar optic. The technology offers DoD a cost effective means to provide renewable and secure power on installations.

PDE Total Energy Solutions: Sodium-Metal-Halide Battery Energy Storage for DoD Installations

: GE Global Research/GE Energy Storage; Dynapower Corporation

: 29 Palms, CA

: This project is testing a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) that incorporates utility grade power electronics, a step-up cast coil transformer, AC and DC switchgear, and sodium-metal-halide battery energy storage and is designed to integrate seamlessly to an existing microgrid. The project will demonstrate how a robust BESS will alleviate renewable energy intermittency, improve island-mode operations, and reduce demand charges and peak load stress on the main transformers and other grid equipment.

Raytheon-Integrated Defense Systems: Zinc Bromide Flow Battery Installation for Islanding and Backup Power

: Premium Power Corporation; NREL; NEI Contracting and Engineering, Inc.

: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA

: This project integrates an innovative Zn/Br flow battery with a patented intelligent energy command and control technology to provide energy security, islanding capability, and reduced energy use. The demonstration will assess the operational life cycle cost of this technology to provide energy security.

Satcon Technology Corporation: Grid-Interactive Renewable Energy Generation System with DC-Link Battery Storage Integration Capable of Hybrid Microgrid Operation to Increase Energy Security on DoD Installations

: A123 Systems

: Fort Detrick, MD

: This project will demonstrate a hybrid electricity generation system that integrates DC-connected bulk energy storage with PV power sources to mitigate the inherent intermittency of the PV. The leveled AC power output will enhance installation energy security, reduce dependence on grid-supplied power, and reduce overall energy costs.

Siemens Corporation: Integrated Control for Building Energy Management

: Boeing Energy; KEMA Services, Inc.; University of California at Berkeley

: Naval Base Ventura County, CA

: This project will demonstrate the functionality of an intelligent Building Energy Management System (iBEMS) for providing advanced, integrated control of building systems, dynamic demand response, and compatibility with microgrid central energy management. Key elements of iBEMS include Siemens Smart Energy Box, Local Energy Gateway, and advanced building control and energy management algorithms.

Siemens Corporation: Tools for Building Energy Asset Management

: Rutgers University; SCR

: Picatinny Arsenal, NJ; West Point, NY

: This project will demonstrate the Building Energy Asset Management (BEAM) as a sophisticated software tool that builds on practices in Enterprise Energy Management to reduce single building or building cluster energy consumption and operational costs and optimize investments in both operating and planning time scales.

Soladigm Inc.: Demonstration Program for Low-Cost, High-Energy-Saving Dynamic Windows

: McKinstry; NREL; Lend Lease; Walters & Wolf

: MCAS Miramar, CA

: This project will demonstrate the energy savings offered by dynamic windows that can switch from a tinted state to a clear state on demand to optimize solar heat gain and daylighting, improving building energy performance. The demonstration will provide the information required to assess the cost benefit of Soldign’s technology when fully integrated into a building.

Southern Research Institute: Conversion of Low Quality Waste Heat to Electric Power with Small Scale Organic Rankine Cycle Engine/Generator Technology

: ElectraTherm

: NALF San Clemente Island, CA; Port Hueneme, CA

: This project will evaluate an organic rankine cycle system that produces inexpensive electric power from waste heat common throughout DoD. The demonstration will determine the operational cost and performance of this technology for common DoD applications.

United Technologies Research Center: Decision Support Tool for Deep Energy Efficiency Retrofits in DoD Installations

: Robust Systems and Strategy; Building Intelligence Group

: Lackland AFB, TX; Fort Sam Houston, TX; Randolph AFB, TX; Fort Bragg, NC

: This project will demonstrate an energy performance analysis methodology that includes models to estimate facility energy use and tools to rank retrofit measures and assess system performance. The models will eliminate the need for time-consuming audits, and the accompanying tools will incorporate a lifecycle cost analysis capability with traditional capital and O&M cost estimates for prioritizing energy efficiency improvements.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Optimizing Operational Efficiency: Integrating Energy Information Systems and Model-Based Diagnostics

: EnergyICT

: Washington Navy Yard, DC

: This project will demonstrate how to enhance current generation Energy Information Systems (EIS) by incorporating fault detection, diagnostic capabilities, and optimization methods. These enhancements will be based on Bayesian statistical methods that use calibrated physics-based models to generate outputs that prioritize equipment repairs, identify malfunctioning controls, and suggest improvements to building operation.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Optimal Scheduling of Air Force Demonstration Plug-in Electric Vehicles

: Bosch Software Innovations; Akuacom

: Los Angeles AFB, CA

: This project will develop and apply a plug-in electric vehicle fleet management and optimization tool and implement the hardware needed for a DoD installation to conduct the complex task of managing an electrified fleet of non-tactical vehicles. The demonstration will enable DoD fleet managers to schedule charging and discharging of electric vehicles to take optimal economic advantage of demand response and ancillary services markets, while ensuring the vehicles operate in conjunction with other base electrical loads and generation resources to maintain energy security and a minimal carbon footprint at the installation.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Electronic Auditing Tool with Geometry Capture

: concept3d

: Naval Support Activity Monterey, CA

: This project integrates an established energy auditing methodology for DoD facilities with a building geometry capture software, an established whole-building energy simulation engine, and a database of building component information into a single computer-based tablet and desktop software tool. This tool will facilitate fast and accurate data collection, accelerate the identification and analysis of potential energy conservation measures, enhance the quality and consistency of audit reports, and store audit data in a standardized format.

U.S. Army ERDC: Kinetic Super-Resolution Long-Wave Infrared Thermography Diagnostic for Building Envelopes

: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Eye-R-Systems, Inc.; AFCESA

: TBD

: This project will demonstrate the rapid kinetic super resolution (KSR) long wave infrared imaging and analysis as a diagnostic tool for DoD to have better informed decisions regarding building envelope design and retrofit.  The KSR technology allows thermal imaging of multiple buildings in a way that is not currently possible and enables rapid assessment of the energy loss from hundreds of building envelopes from scans taken in just a few hours.

U.S. Army ERDC: Demonstrate Energy Component of the Installation Master Plan Using ‘Net Zero Installation Virtual Testbed’

: The PERTAN Group

: West Point, NY; Washington Navy Yard, DC

: This project will demonstrate a novel energy optimization process called the Net Zero Energy Installations (NZEI) Virtual Testbed, which analyzes appropriate packages of energy efficiency measures using automated runs of the EnergyPlus model. This decision support/scenario analysis tool enables users to address ‘what if’ scenarios for cost savings, energy savings, carbon emissions reductions, and suggested optimal actions based on available budgets.

Army Air Force Exchange Service: Converged Energy Management Control System

: Rocky Mountain Institute

: Fort Campbell, KY

: This project will evaluate the utility of a converged, IT-friendly energy management control system (EMCS) designed for DoD food courts. This converged EMCS approach offers large system scalability, simplicity, and security that will enable repeatable energy reduction plans for all DoD food courts.

Naval District Washington CIO: NDW Cognitive Energy Management System

: 3e Technologies International

: Naval District Washington CIO, VA

: This project will demonstrate the cognitive energy management system (CEMS) technology, which optimizes building energy usage based on intelligent occupancy-based building automation strategies. CEMS augments standard building automation systems with intelligent control through localized sensors and a person’s planned destination based on tenant occupancy and through advanced decision-based rules, parameters, and metrics.

NAVFAC-ESC: Modeling & Verifying Aircraft Paint Hangar Airflow to Reduce Greenhouse Gas and Energy Usage while Protecting Occupational Health

: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health; U.S. Army ERDC-CERL; AFRL

: TBD

: This project is using computational fluid dynamics modeling to determine minimal airflow and ventilation requirements in aircraft paint hangars while maintaining occupational safety and health. Reducing airflow/ventilation requirements in these facilities can lead to substantive reductions in energy consumption.

NAVFAC-ESC: Demonstration of Plasma Lighting for High Wattage Applications

: NAVFAC-LANT; U.S. Army ERDC-CERL

: Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, GA; MCAS Pendleton, CA

: This project will demonstrate plasma lighting as an alternative to high pressure sodium lighting in both high illuminance and high mast applications common across DoD. Plasma lighting can improve visibility, controllability, and efficiency at lower maintenance costs. The project will assess life cycle costs and accelerate its implementation cross all the services.