Thirty-five Years of Renewable Energy Project Experience at Fort Huachuca, AZ

ABSTRACTFort Huachuca, Arizona, located 60 miles (96 km) southeast of Tucson, has had 35 years of experience with various renewable energy systems. This article discusses lessons learned from the successes and failures over the past 35 years, including: an indoor pool solar water heating system installed in 1980; a solar domestic hot water system installed in 1981; a grid connected photovoltaic (PV) system installed in 1982; transpired air solar collectors (Solarwalls™) installed in 2001; daylighting installed in 2001; a 10-kW wind turbine installed in 2002; a 1 MW wind turbine installed in September 2011; PV powered outdoor lighting installed in 1994; a prototype Dish/Stirling solar thermal electric generator installed in 1996; two 30-kW building integrated photovoltaic systems installed on new membrane roofs in January 2009; a 42.84 kW photovoltaic system that was moved from the Pentagon in June 2009 and was operational in early November 2009 on a truck shed roof at Fort Huachuca; and a utility owned 13...