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Navy Tests Fuel Cell-Powered Vehicles for Performance, Reliability

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100604-19
6/4/2010

By Kim Longstaff, Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers Corporate Communications

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Two electric vehicles powered by fuel cell technology were delivered to the Navy Broadway Complex in downtown San Diego June 1 for testing by two area admirals.

Rear Adm. Mark Heinrich, commander Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers and Rear Adm. William French, commander Navy Region Southwest, received the fuel cell vehicles, on loan from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, for use for four days. During the four days, the admirals will test the vehicles for performance, durability and reliability.

The Department of Defense is the nation's largest single energy consumer, accounting for 2.0 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

Last October, during Energy Awareness Month, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus reminded the Navy and Marine Corps that energy reform and energy conservation are more than ideas to think about only one month out of the year. He set five ambitious energy targets by 2020.

Target 1 — By 2020, half of our total energy consumption, ashore and afloat, will come from alternative sources.

Target 2 — By 2020, we will make half of our installations net-zero energy consumers, using solar, wind, ocean and geothermal power generated on base.

Target 3 — By 2016, the Navy will sail the Great Green Fleet, a carrier strike group composed of nuclear ships, hybrid electric ships running biofuel and aircraft flying on biofuel.

Target 4 — By 2015, the Department of the Navy will cut in half the amount of petroleum we use in our commercial vehicle fleet through phased adoption of hybrid, electric and flex fuel vehicles.

Target 5 — Effective immediately, the Navy and Marine Corps will change the way contracts are awarded. Industry will be held contractually accountable for meeting energy efficiency targets.

"I'm really looking forward to testing the fuel cell vehicle this week," said Heinrich. "Being a 'fuelie' [one of the many degrees he holds is in petroleum management] with global energy consumption growing, I'm wholly on board with the Navy to support renewable energy."

This demonstration also supports the NAVSUP strategic plan for energy, which Lyden signed May 18.

"Our civilian and military workforce has the ability to be an excellent source of ideas for reducing NAVSUP's energy consumption, increasing energy efficiency and reducing our carbon footprint," said Rear Adm. Mike Lyden, commander, Naval Supply Systems Command.

The fuel cell vehicles being tested by the admirals are twice as efficient as gasoline engines; they will travel twice as far on the same amount of energy and water vapor is the only emission. A fuel cell vehicle is an electric vehicle, not a hybrid, and has better performance than most cars and has quick fill up, about 4-5 minutes.

In the future, with proper fueling infrastructure, hydrogen fuel cells are a viable alternative to gasoline powered vehicles and coincides with target 4 of the SECNAV energy goals.

COMFISCS provides an array of integrated global logistics and contracting services to Navy and Joint operational units across all warfare enterprises.
COMFISCS is responsible for facilitating best business practices and efficiencies across the seven FISCs located in San Diego, Calif.; Norfolk, Va.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Yokosuka, Japan; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Bremerton (Puget Sound), Wash.; and Sigonella, Italy; and for optimizing the performance of base supply functions and standardizing levels of service across 11 regions and 77 Navy installations.

Comprised of more than 7,000 military and civilian logistics professionals, COMFISCS operates as a single cohesive team providing global logistics services from 135 locations worldwide.

A component of the Naval Supply Systems Command, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa., COMFISCS is part of a worldwide logistics network of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel providing combat capability through logistics.