Naval District Washington (NDW) hosted members of the Near Southeast Community Partners civic group for a tour showcasing the region's energy conservation and efficiency efforts as part of the Great Green Fleet (GGF) initiative, May 26.

The guests walked through the Washington Navy Yard's NetZero prototype building, the Shore Operations Center, and the solar panels site on the Washington Navy Yard.

Bruce DarConte, founder and president of Near Southeast Community Partners explained how impressed he was about the energy conservation efforts by NDW.

"I thought this tour was fascinating; everything about saving energy is the way to go," said DarConte. "Obviously while it takes time to implement, it's good to see that these processes are moving forward. Just getting the chance to look at everything [the] Navy is doing to try and conserve energy is just fascinating; it's the way to go towards the future, and we need to do our best to conserve energy for the next generation."

NDW has been leading the efforts on energy conservation by fitting it's more than 100-year-old buildings to convert them into "smart" buildings -- by installing air conditioning units that can be remotely monitored, motion detectors that indicate when spaces are being utilized and by how many people are in them, and light motion sensors to shut the lights off when a space is not being occupied.

DarConte explain he learned some lessons from his tour of the facilities.

"One of the things I'd like to take back is the way that technology can help us save energy," said DarConte. "If there are ways that we can tie this to computer systems and smartphones, whereas we don't have to burn energy when nobody is in an office building for instance, and we can actually lower or raise the temperature I think that is the way to go. We have to find the way to take some of the load off of these grids."

Operators at the Navy Yard closely monitor electricity and power usage on facilities connected to the SmartGrid, and can make changes over the cyber-secure network in the case of a weather incident, natural or man-made disaster, or simply a resource drawing the wrong amount of power. This control helps lower overall consumption and operating costs.

"I know most people don't get a chance to see this kind of technology that's being implemented, and if they don't they're really missing out because the Navy is trying to do its part to conserve energy in the country and they're off to a great start," said DarConte. "I know we won't see it immediately, but I know in the future we will all benefit from it."

The Great Green Fleet (GGF) is a yearlong, Department of the Navy initiative that demonstrates the sea service's efforts to transform its energy use. As one of the Secretary of the Navy's key energy goals, the purpose of the GGF is to make our Sailors and Marines better warfighters, able to go farther, stay longer and deliver more firepower. Secretary Mabus chose the name Great Green Fleet to honor President Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, which helped usher in America as a global power on the world stage at the beginning of the 20th Century. The GGF will usher in the next era of Department of Navy energy innovation.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy/, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy/.

For more news and information about GGF, visit http://greenfleet.dodlive.mil/energy/great-green-fleet/.

For more news and information about Naval District Washington visit http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/ndw.html/ or
http://www.navy.mil/local/ndw/.