EERE News - Building on their previous cooperation, DOE and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced on March 2 new steps between the two departments to strengthen national security through the continued development of advanced clean energy technologies. Furthering last summer's memorandum of understanding (MOU), the new steps leverage better the expertise and resources of both departments in everything from advanced vehicles to energy storage.
The Office of DOD's Chief Technology Officer—known as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering or ASDR&E—aims to exploit early technology breakthroughs funded through DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). Using ARPA-E's technical expertise in grid-scale energy storage, batteries for electric vehicles, and power electronic, ASDR&E plans to develop an energy storage device that will provide future defense systems with long-duration storage suitable for a variety of applications, including military bases and vehicles and eventually commercial grids. Cost effective energy storage is also of interest to DOD's
Installations and Environment office, which will work with ARPA-E to assess technology requirements for storage across military installations. On-site renewable electricity generation combined with grid-scale storage would allow defense installations to maintain critical functions in the event of grid disruption and to enhance installations' efforts to develop micro-grids for energy security. The joint efforts will be initiated during the 2012 fiscal year. See the DOE press release.
