AFCESA showcases "BEAR" expeditionary energy initiative at Pentagon event Published Oct. 21, 2011 By Jennifer Elmore AFCESA/CEBH AFCESA -- Engineers and energy professionals from across the Department of Defense and industry are showcasing technologies and discussing ways to meet energy challenges at the second annual Pentagon Energy Security Event. This year's PESE theme is "Save Energy - Save Money - Save Lives." The Air Force has a plan to accomplish all three by reducing facility energy an additional 15 percent at major installations and 50 percent at expeditionary bases. Major installations The Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency, located at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. and home to the Air Force Facility Energy Center, is tasked with identifying and evaluating technologies and funding strategies to ensure the federal energy goals are met. Facility energy audits; building tune-ups, or recommissioning; decentralization of heat plants; and energy efficient upgrades such as lighting retrofits, all provide big payback in the form of energy and dollar savings. "The technology that is out there now is allowing us to make meaningful improvements in our buildings and our installations," said Dr. Dorothy Robyn, Deputy Undersecretary for Installations and Environment at the DOD. "But new technology--technology that has been developed that is not yet commercially available--will allow us to make really big improvements in the area of 50 percent energy reduction in retrofits and 70 percent in new buildings." Expeditionary bases AFCESA is also leading efforts to reduce energy consumption at expeditionary bases. Rod Fisher, an expeditionary modernization engineer at AFCESA, says, "After three years of research, we're now ready to write the specifications for and acquire the energy efficient equipment needed to take the first step in reducing energy use at our BEAR bases." The Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources, or BEAR, program provides facilities and equipment to bed down up to 3,300 Airmen and 72 fighter aircraft at expeditionary locations. A full BEAR camp consumes 10.5 megawatts of power with environmental control units accounting for about 60 percent of it. The new BEAR Energy Efficient Shelter System employs solar flys, insulated liners, photovoltaic integrated flys, and a more efficient ECU capable of cooling two shelters rather than the current one-on-one configuration. Once deployed, Mr. Fisher says the new shelter system is the first step in a comprehensive plan that could reduce BEAR generator fuel consumption by more than 6,000 gallons a day. "We've developed and submitted proposals to fund an operational BEESS demonstration, and hope to deploy it by 2013," said Mr. Fisher. Colonel Marvin Smith, Director of Installations for U.S. Air Forces Central, said the Air Force is encouraging contractors to save energy in deployed locations through competition. "Within AFCENT we want to optimize support to the battlefield while also ensuring we are always good stewards of our nation's finite resources. One way we can do that is through contracts. We spend a lot of money for contract support across the [area of responsibility], so we are working in the Air Force through the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program to make sure our contracting avenues have the right language so the contractor has an incentive to help us reduce our energy demands." AFCAP is managed at AFCESA. The long-term multi-billion dollar program provides contingency support in the areas of design, construction, service contracts, logistics, and just-in-time commodity solutions. The DOD spent $15 billion on energy in 2010, more than half of which was spent on Air Force missions in the air and on the ground.