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JTF Guantanamo Goes Green

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS091125-14
Release Date: 11/25/2009 1:04:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Shane Arrington, Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (NNS) -- Navy and civilian engineering and technical personnel work together at the wind turbines and at the water and power plant in Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba, to provide green energy for approximately 7,000 people stationed at Naval Station (NAVSTA) GTMO.

"The regional Naval Facilities Engineering Command and the Navy, in general, have a strong focus on conserving energy," said Lt. j.g. Jonathon Charfauros, Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's energy manager and assistant public works manager. "There are many things providing guidelines on this issue. There are presidential mandates, the 2007 Engineering Professional Advisory Committee and the reduction requirements of 30 percent in energy consumption by 2015 set across the Navy."

NAVSTA GTMO has recently kicked off a building energy monitor program, which, according to Charfauros, puts someone who knows about energy and knows what they're looking for into every facility. This person is responsible for going through building spaces and finding leaks in all the heating, ventilating and air conditioning units.

In fiscal year 2009, Joint Task Force (JTF) GTMO alone consumed 35,055.3 megawatts per hour of electricity in its mission of providing safe and humane care and custody of detainees.

With the non-renewable resources used to produce energy dwindling, it becomes ever more important for places that produce so much energy, such as NAVSTA GTMO, to continue to introduce and expand existing conservation programs.

"We already have some alternative energy sources; the main one being the turbines providing wind power," said Charfauros. "And for fiscal year 2010, we're going to start designing an incineration plant that takes all the garbage that goes to our landfill, burns it and turns that into energy. Another project we have in place involves the base's perimeter lighting. Ten percent of our energy cost goes into lighting the fence line at night; and by replacing some of the lights with solar powered lights, we'll probably reduce that by a fifth."

While the naval station does its job of staying green on the grand scale, Michael McCord, NAVSTA GTMO's environmental director, says it's just as important for individuals to do their part as well.

"People sometimes miss the big picture when it comes to energy conservation," McCord said. "If [we] turn the light off or save some water, the downstream effect of not wastefully using these resources is that we reduce the impact on the fuel system as a whole."

"We burn diesel fuel to produce energy, that energy is used in the reverse osmosis systems to create the water we drink, clean our clothes, cook and water our lawns with. So every drop of water [we] save is a drop of oil that's not being consumed to produce the electricity used to make the water," said McCord.

This is important for the service members and their families stationed at NAVSTA GTMO, as well as the wildlife and protected plants that share the base with them, said McCord.

For more information about JTF GTMO, visit the Web site at www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil

For more news from Joint Task Force Guantanamo, visit www.navy.mil/local/jtfgtmo/.