U.S. Defense Department recruits Skyline Solar

Edwards Air Force Base is slated to receive one installation. Photo: U.S. Air Force.

For the United States military, investing in renewable energy may be more about security than environmental benefits. But whatever the reason, the Department of Defense is pushing to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, and is recruiting cleantech companies for its mission.

One of those is Mountain View, Calif.-based concentrating photovoltaic startup Skyline Solar. The company said Tuesday it won a $1.58 million contract to build two solar installations for the Department of Defense as part of the agency’s program to test new energy technologies.

“The solar industry should be aware that the Department of Defense is extremely serious about energy security,” said Tim Keating, a Skyline executive.

With more than 300,000 buildings under its management, the Department of Defense is the country’s largest energy consumer, spending about $4 billion annually on energy. Through its Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, it selects and tests technologies that it thinks have potential to reduce energy use and carbon emissions, conserve water and improve energy security, including building energy management systems, LED lighting and waste-to-energy projects.

Skyline makes metal-paneled, dual-trough tracking solar systems that it says yield about 30 percent more energy with faster assembly and less environmental impact than traditional systems. The company’s technology has the potential to overcome the limitations of other solar technologies, including cost, infrastructure requirements and difficulty in relocating systems, according to the Defense Department.

For the military, Skyline plans to experiment with moving and redeploying the systems, which are expected to produce about 450 megawatt hours of electricity per year, and to be installed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and Fort Bliss, in Texas, Keating said.

Skyline was founded in 2007 and announced its first commercial installation earlier this year.
 The company is also working on reducing the cost of its systems by using less silicon and fewer motors, Keating said.