Dec 15 2010
Skyline Solar, a company manufacturing High Gain Solar (HGS) arrays, has declared that the US Department of Defense (DoD) has selected Skyline for installing the HGS system at two US Military bases.
The project’s goal is demonstration of HGS Solar’s performance in sunny and hot climates, and validates its Rapid System Deployment ability and field upgradability. The combined output for the projects would be almost 436 MW hours per year.
When addressing an Energy Security Forum, Admiral Mike Mullen, who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointed that it was necessary for the Military to review renewable energy with regard to energy security. He noted that if securing, developing and utilizing new sources of energy was not carried out or if improving ways in which legacy energy systems are used are left unresolved it could threaten national security.
For encouraging energy independency in the US, the DoD had introduced an ESTCP Program, wherein cost-effective innovative technologies could be propagated via demonstrations on DoD sites. Skyline Solar has been awarded such an Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) project for recognizing technologies that fulfill primary DoD requirements and could be deployed easily on a widespread basis.
According to Skyline Solar’s CEO, Thomas Rohrs, the ESTCP was a fantastic program, which inspires adoption of renewable energy so that national security could be heightened and energy independence could be accelerated. The competitive bidding and the subsequent winning of the DoD contract proves Skyline’s capabilities. Skyline had also been conferred two patents via the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This Green Tech Pilot Program was a 2010 federal initiative to accelerate the patent procedures for vital green innovations. Through the Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) Skyline had also secured an extremely competitive PV incubator Sub-contract from the DOE in 2008. Skyline Solar was established in 2007 and financed by NEA and other Strategic Investors.