Air Force and Army team up to fight energy waste Published April 16, 2012 By Amy Ausley HQ AFCESA/CEBH Tyndall AFB -- A new, joint service, multi-organizational program aimed at reducing the energy demand for expeditionary shelter systems will soon be putting all of the lessons learned to date to good use in the Southwest Asia Area of Responsibility. The Director of Operational Energy Plans and Programs from the Department of Defense, Ms. Sharon Burke, recently approved funding for the first year of a three-year joint program, "Advanced, Energy Efficient Shelter Systems for Contingency Basing and Other Applications," in the amount of $6 million. This project will continue and expand upon joint efforts to develop energy efficient expeditionary shelters in three phases: an initial joint demonstration of state-of-the-art energy efficient shelter systems in the AOR; continued research into advanced liners, materials, coatings, thermal performance modeling, and expansion of the research into large shelters; and then a follow-on demonstration of next-generation shelter systems incorporating all of the findings. The goal is to optimize shelter systems that meet joint service needs with a 50 percent reduction in power consumption. The program will be led by the Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, Natick, Mass., in partnership with Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources Global Management Office, Langley Air Force Base, Va.; the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency and the Air Force Research Lab, both at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.; the Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center-Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, Ill.; and the Army Materiel Command-Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems, Natick, Mass. The Air Force and the Army have partnered before on expeditionary energy through the Net Zero Joint Capability Technology Demonstration. Together they have developed and evaluated a combination of shade flys, photovoltaic flys, insulated liners, solar shades, more efficient environmental control units, and energy-efficient lighting, all of which could mean almost a 40 percent reduction in power consumption in expeditionary bases. Now, according to Mr. Rod Fisher, expeditionary modernization engineer at AFCESA, it's time to pull all the pieces together. "We don't have any shelters in place currently which incorporate all of the technologies we've developed and evaluated over the past three years. With this new program, we will be able to put together complete shelter systems, send them to the AOR, and get real world data on how they work." Phase one of the Advanced, Energy Efficient Shelter Systems for Contingency Basing and Other Applications is an initial demonstration in which the Air Force and the Army will each put together eight small shelter systems to send to the AOR. That demonstration is expected to be ready to go to the AOR by spring or summer 2013. The Air Force will deploy four systems of two shelters each incorporating the best PV flys, shade flys, and insulated liners. Two shelters will be cooled with a single ECU versus the current "one shelter-one ECU"system. Phase two, which is technology development, will occur simultaneously and will have the Army and the Air Force working in three other areas. The Army's ERDC-CERL will study modeling, simulation and analysis, looking at the interaction between a shelter's fly, skin and thermal liner to create a more efficient design. They will also investigate energy efficiencies for rigid wall shelters. NSRDEC will work on Advanced High Performance Insulation to develop an insulation which provides an improved thermal barrier, minimizes the logistics burden and withstands harsh environments. Meanwhile, AFRL will research large shelter energy efficiencies to try to maximize energy security for BEAR assets in the field while reducing energy consumption. All of these efforts will cross-feed information to achieve the best possible results. Phase three will consist of a follow-on demonstration in the AOR in fiscal years 2013 and 2014. This includes building optimized shelter systems based on the lessons learned in the initial demonstrations and the technology development phases. The goal is for the new shelters to demonstrate energy savings of at least 50 percent in a relevant environment. When deployed into future expeditionary bases, these new systems will reduce energy demand, fuel requirements and convoys, ultimately saving lives.