The Pentagon, one of the world’s largest buildings, is getting rooftop solar

The US Department of Defense will install rooftop solar on the Pentagon as part of the Biden administration’s plan to “reestablish the federal government as a sustainability leader.”

In addition to rooftop solar panels, the Pentagon will also install a heat-recovery heat pump system and solar thermal panels to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

The solar panels and heat pump system will power over 95% of space heating and hot water heating, currently powered by natural gas and oil. The Pentagon, which has over 6.6 million square feet (610,000 square meters) of floor area and houses 26,000 employees, is aiming to achieve net zero.

The Pentagon program has a potential savings of over 7 million kWh of electricity and 128,157 MMBtu of natural gas per year, leading to an estimated annual total energy cost reduction of $1.36 million. 

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said, “By rethinking how we generate, distribute, and use energy, DoD is making our installations more resilient, better securing our critical infrastructure, and saving money — a win for warfighters and taxpayers alike.”

The Pentagon is one of 31 federal facilities that will receive $104 million in grants for energy conservation and clean energy projects from the US Department of Energy’s Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) program. The grants are the first of three disbursements from $250 million in funding earmarked for the program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Other projects include the application of photovoltaic film on south-facing windows at the Department of Transportation and the upgrade of more than 86,000 square feet of windows from the original 1960s single‐pane to double‐pane, low‐e secondary windows added to the interior of the DOE’s Forrestal Building. The Commerce and Transportation buildings will also see upgrades.

Read more: Solar, wind to lead US power generation growth for the next 2 years

Photo: The Pentagon. (2024, January 13). In Wikipedia.

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