"Particularly in light of tight oil and gas supplies caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it is important that all Americans, including the federal government, increase energy efficiency and the use of renewable fuels," says energy secretary Samuel Bodman. "Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass are increasingly becoming viable options for American homes and buildings."
Executive Order 13123 in 1999 required federal agencies to increase their use of renewables and the secretary of energy set a goal of sourcing 2.5% from renewables by September 2005. The EO included solar, wind, biomass and geothermal systems installed after 1990; hydropower was not included in the definition of renewable energy sources for federal facilities. When the federal goal was implemented in June 2000, it represented a target of 1,355 GWh of electricity and, at that time, agencies were obtaining 13% from renewables. By March 2003, consumption had increased to 663 GWh, and the target was raised to 1,384 GWh to reflect increases in federal use of electricity.
The Federal Energy Management Program at DOE was directed to help federal agencies to meet the overall goal by purchasing green power or installing green heat systems at individual sites. Among the facilities quoted by FEMP are the 127 kW rooftop solar system at the U.S. Postal Service Marina facility in California, 675 kW of large wind turbines at the Navy base on San Clemente Island off California, 225 kW of wind turbines at the Air Force base on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, a 5 MW cogeneration facility that uses wood waste at the Army’s Fort Stewart base in Georgia, 366 rooftop solar water-heating systems at the Navy's Moanalua Terrace housing complex in Hawaii which displace the emission of 622 tons of CO2 each year, a PV array and two small wind turbines at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Alaska near the Arctic circle, and the installation of 4,000 earth energy heat pumps at Fort Polk in Louisiana which saves the Army $3 million a year in energy costs.
The recently-approved Energy Policy Act set a goal for the federal government to obtain 7.5% of its electrical power from renewables by 2013.
