Aloha Kakahiaka: Up to $500M for Solar on Hawaiian Bases
Parking lot
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In August 2011, US Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific in Pearl Harbor, HI issued an indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract for “reliable locally generated solar alternating current power” at military installations in its area of responsibility.
The contract announcement comes hard on the heels of an official unveiling for a new US Army Energy Initiatives Office Task Force, which aims to “leverage industry for the execution of large-scale renewable and alternative energy projects on Army installations”…
To reach its renewable energy goal, the US Army estimates it will need to invest $7.1 billion over the next 10 years, in order to generate 2.1 million megawatt hours of power a year on Army lands. The EIO Task Force aims to become the Army’s center of expertise for managing these public-private energy partnerships, helping Army base staff and interested private companies understand and craft arrangements lasting up to 30 years.
The August 2011 NAVFAC contract encompasses Army installations, but preliminary responses to DID inquiries indicate that it is more of a model for exactly the kinds of arrangements the EIO seeks to foster, rather than an initial EIO project.
Under this maximum $500 million NAVFAC Pacific contract, the winning firms will establish solar power systems on government facilities’ roofs, parking shade structures, and vacant parcels of land. The contracted firms will build, own, and maintain those generation systems, while selling the A/C power to identified bases that include Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam; Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Schofield Barracks; Wheeler Army Airfield; Tripler Army Medical Center; Fort DeRussy; the Asia Pacific Center for Strategic Studies; the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station; Naval Magazine West Loch; the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai; and the Army Reserve Center on Maui.
This maximum 5-year contract has 1 base year and 4 option years, and was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 13 proposals received. Task orders issued under the contract are contemplated to be for a period of up to 30 years, pursuant to the statutory authority of 10 U.S. Code 2922a. The 3 winning small business firms are:
- Island Pacific Energy, L.L.C. in Honolulu, HI (N62742-11-D-1191)
- Pacific Energy Solutions, L.L.C. in Honolulu, HI (N62742-11-D-1192)
- Photon Finance, L.L.C. in Mountain View, CA (N62742-11-D-1196)
