Picture taken in 1999 of Hugh Jones (center) with the 82nd Airborne in Ft.Bragg, North Carolina. For over 30 years, Hugh worked for the Center for Army Analysis (CAA) researching and analyzing renewable energy solutions for the military.

Mr. Jones' reports have since been made publicly available and are featured below

Renewable Energy Analysis
for Strategic Responsiveness

June 2005

Purpose: Survey the need for remote mission power
  1. Conduct cost - benefit analyses of power alternatives in remote applications
  2. Analyze alternative power sources
  3. Analyze air pollution emissions from selected power source alternatives

Findings: Solar-Hybrid power source options for remote power generation can be economically viable given the right conditions.
Speical Operations Forces
Tactical Energy Resource

December 2004

Purpose: Explore alternative power sources for tactical applications

Weight and cost of energy sources are identified as drivers for Special Forces power planning. The impacts of weight and cost on tactical energy storage given changing technologies needs to be explored as does the associated costs for providing the remote power in the first place
Strategic Energy Resource Investment

August 2004

Purpose: Analyze different distributed power generation strategies
  1. Develop a new optimization model to help quantify and qualify the many kinds of competing energy generation platforms
  2. Study installation energy security issues and make recommendations for the studied installations
  3. Analyze the cause and effect that power alternatives have on the environment
  4. Compare and contrast the costs involved

Findings: Distributed generation may provide the best security (because it's dispersed) - but it's much more expensive than either the status quo (grid-tied) or on-installation centralized energy alternatives
Army Tactical Hybrid Power System
Analysis & Design

May 2004

Purpose: Compare the advantages and disadvantages of using hybrid systems versus the diesel generators in use today

Costs were annualized so that technologies that have high capital but low operating costs (such as photovoltaic cells) could be fairly compared to technologies with low capital but relatively high operating costs (such as diesel generators)

Findings: Results demonstrate that, with the electrical loads provided, hybrid and variable displacement engines are almost always economically attractive to stand-alone generators
Deployable Photovoltaics (PV) Presentation

April 1999

Purpose: To develop a methodology for identifying and analyzing the costs and benefits of using deployable photovoltaic systems

Findings: Results show that a deployable renewable energy system (ex: trailer-mounted) can be used to provide the primary powersource for a Battalion sized Airborne Infantry Tactical Operation Center

Note: This presentation and report was based on the system half-hidden behind Hugh in the picture at the top of this page. The report was written a decade ago when modern photovoltaic technology was just beginning to take shape and long before "going green" with hybrid power was mainstream.