Snazzy post up by Noah on Danger Room looking at the USMC’s urgent request for solar and wind turbine stations. The request was turned down after the Joint Staff decided that the technology was too immature.

The Army, meanwhile, is testing containerized solar and wind generators from Sky Built Power, which claims to offer users:

Military and Intelligence Uses:
Lower cost, more reliable power
No logistical tail, no heat signature

Mobile Power Stations:
Containerized, rapidly deployed power, expandable from 0.5 kW to
150 kW or more; use the inside of the container for any purpose in the field
Power without fuel and virtually no maintenance

Commercial Applications:
Cell tower conversions to renewables
Geo Exchange systems to reduce HVAC costs

Homeland Security:
Disaster relief power, baseload or backup
Emergency Ops centers for first responders
Power for CBW and other sensors
Border control power

International:
Water pumping, desalinization and irrigation for Sustainable Economic Development
Mobile clinics and health facilities
Self-contained, self-powered classrooms, offices

This listing of potential customers makes clear the strategic significance of instant infrastructure like this. In addition to the ability to rapidly deploy electrical generating capacity to areas in need, the smaller logistical tail would reduce the number of convoy targets for IEDs and ambushes.

SysAdmin tech like this isn’t as sexy as big war platforms, but it will become key to the soft power projection needs of 21st Century conflict (just as carriers are giving way to amphibious warfare ships as the primary power projection assets).