There have been conflicting reports as to how much the U.S. military would benefit from using solar energy. RAND Corporation, for example, has been very candid it its assessment that the U.S. military will not benefit directly by switching to renewable fuels.

But the Office of Naval Research disagrees. The office says that using renewables will extend the amount of time U.S. Marines can conduct its forward operations without having to recharge their electronics.When you think about where many of our Marines are today, that’s a huge advantage. It means that the Marines can limit the number of fuel-carrying convoys they have to send to soldiers in super remote areas in the Middle East.

That’s not the only benefit. The federal government has set a requirement for the US. military to scale back its energy use by 30 percent by 2015. In 2025, a quarter of the military’s power has to come from solar energy or other clean fuel sources. What better time to start than now?

In Afghanistan, solar panels are already being used to recharge batteries. Photovoltaic (PV) battery systems have reduced the use of fuel generators by the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines by 0ver 90 percent.

The military’s effort to incorporate more solar energy is taking place at home too. Military bases in Arizona, California and New Jersey have all made efforts to use solar energy to offset some of the military’s dirty energy use. The U.S. military is one of the largest consumers of energy in the entire world, so the switch won’t happen over night. But hey, you have to start somewhere.