No sarcasm-this is A Good Thing. Less environmental screw ups, less noise, an army that's far less tied to the "main" national infrastructure. Plus a great example to point other companies at.

If this is carried out under their normal budget, or even on a reasonable extension of the budget, then is is a fantastic scheme.

Military waste is waste no matter what powers it.

Ft. Irwin is used for simulating tank warfare. If a tank round goes astray out in the desert, it's no big deal--unless there's a thousand-mirror solar power plant in the area.

Live firing is pretty tightly controlled. The exercises involve weapon simulators.

But the US Army has been looking at small-scale battlefield solar power for several years: batteries for portable equipment, or fuel for the generators to recharge them, is extra logistic hassle.

Well they just need to make sure their rounds go where they're aiming then don't they? Ah right, Americans, I see the problem there...

Personally I agree with OP, this is a good thing!

What next?

Replace depleted uranium with a more enviromentally frienldy bio-degradable mass ?

Replace lead with a more enviromentally friendly bio-degradable mass ?

Run tanks, lorries, jeeps and areoplanes on methane ?

Research explosives that use more enviromentally freindly materials ?

Since most the whole world is a little constipated at this moment, there could soon be a new major source of biodegradable mass, methane and more environmentally friendly materials.

Brings a new meaning to war is sh@t.

just launch the attack at night.

So why the sneering tone of the first paragraph?

It is *possible* to overdo the enviro-scepticism, y'know.

Mentioning friendly fire in an article about power generation. Classic.

I know what's coming next - after cannon fodder it'll be jail meat.

All those hellholes in the southern sun will be fitted out using convict black labour to scab (heh) on union labour (same as the cannon fodder producers use khaki conscripts). If all the perps (and suspected perps, and black kids in the wrong place at the wrong time) are set to work covering the roofs and grounds and walls with solar panels or digging ditches for heat exchangers or cultivating energy cacti on the freefire strips inside and outside the walls then not only will the new plants be built in record time but the bars will be fed with home-produced juice.

And the cheapskates will even stoop to using open source computers (almost said "commuters" there - sheer paranoia!) and Linux etc to avoid their patriotic duty of paying the M$ tax.

Hm, and after the jails begin to rock, I suppose it'll be the navy with Harm and Hips using wave power, tidal power and tow-along turbines to generate all they need.

Then the air force building missile and drone skins from thin-film solar panels, and doing Stuka dives from 30 000 meters to 10 000 meters to recharge their electric battery powered engines.

Maybe we could urge the fat cats to fit wind turbines to their golden parachutes or at least kinetic energy transformers and heat and dissolution converters for when they leap out of the windows. SPLAT!!

(Paris cos we know what wavy movements she could use to generate juice...)

Now I know for sure peak oil and fuel wars are on the way.

Every now and then the most mundane news release contains something far more important between the lines and this news release is something I knew would come about if peak oil/gas/food was close.