Feasibility Study of Photovoltaic Panels in Military Temporary Housing Structures

Abstract

Energy consumption by the US Army is becoming an increasingly important issue. The cost of providing fuel to Army outposts in deployed environments is particularly expensive due to numerous precautions required to defend fuel convoys from enemy attacks. This work is part of the Army's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) efforts to reduce the amount of energy consumed by temporary barracks structures commonly referred to as “B-Huts”. A prototype is being developed utilizing structurally insulated panels (SIP) and is referred to as a “SIP-Hut”. This paper explores the benefits of incorporating photovoltaic (PV) panels into the SIP-Hut's power system. Powering a SIP-Hut is a unique challenge because SIP-Huts are typically located in remote and dangerous locations and, in addition, are temporary structures. A main thrust of this work was to examine if PV could be economically beneficial within this unique environment and short time span. However, the findings from this study can be applied to other remote locations where fossil fuels are not readily available. The SIP-Hut was modeled, solar resources estimated and analysis was performed using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software. Our analysis indicates that PV incorporation can have a significant positive impact on the amount of diesel fuel consumed and the overall cost of energy production.