U.S. Air Force to Develop 1 Gigawatt of Renewable Energy by 2016

The U.S. Air Force will develop 1 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2016, a Department of Defense spokesman said.

The Air Force’s energy goals are part of a 2007 congressional mandate that 25 percent of all power at U.S. military bases be from renewable sources by 2025. The Army and Navy each plan to get 1 gigawatt from renewables by 2020, which would be four years after the Air Force, Dave Foster, a Pentagon spokesman, said earlier today in a telephone interview.

One gigawatt is enough to power about 800,000 homes, according to the Department of Energy.

The Air Force said in an e-mail that it generated 6 percent of its energy in 2011 from renewables, including wind, solar and landfill gas.

The Defense Department operates 2.2 billion square feet in about 300,000 buildings, or three times as much as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, in an interview on March 30.

To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Doom in New York at jdoom1@bloomberg.net; Sophia Yan in Washington at sophiayan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net