Commander, Naval Region Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia (CNREURAFSWA) and Naval Facilities Command Region Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia (NAVFAC EURAFSWA) are working together to reduce the energy usage and carbon footprint of all installations throughout the Region.

Increased focus and effort has been put toward these efforts in response to Executive Order 13423 signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush, ordering a reduction of energy usage of 30 percent over 10 years.

The Region was on track with 28 percent energy reduction as of 2015. This order was wrapped up in Executive Order 13693 signed by President Barak Obama in March 2015, establishing continued focus on reduction of energy usage in all federal agencies, requiring 25 percent of all energy provided by renewable sources by 2025.

All installations throughout the Region have completed comprehensive installation of sound and motion sensors in all buildings in order to reduce energy consumption whenever any of the facilities are not in use. These sensors are installed in offices and bathrooms to parking garages and gym facilities. Electric vehicles are also used extensively throughout several installations with 66 vehicles currently being used by base personnel and maintenance crews.

Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples, Italy, Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu, Romania, and NSA Souda Bay, Greece have installed several solar panels throughout their installations. NSA Souda Bay has built seven solar carports capable of storing 200 kilowatts while producing 275 mega-watts per year equivalent to the power used by 27 U.S. homes per year. NSA Naples has installed panels on several buildings with a capacity of 300 kilowatts while generating 390 megawatt-hours per year. That is the equivalent energy usage of 39 U.S. homes for one year.

Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Italy, followed by the rest of CNREURAFSWA replaced street lighting and high density light fixtures with light emitting diodes (LEDs). Usage of the LED lamps reduces maintenance and replacement costs, upgrading from 20,000 to 50,000 hours of use.

"Conventional lights are replaced with LEDs for several reasons. LEDs are more efficient, to produce 800 lumens of light, an incandescent bulb consumes 60 watts, a CFL (compact fluorescent) 13 to 15 watts, and an LED only six to eight watts," said Daniel Lougen NAVFAC EURAFSWA Regional Energy Manager. "LEDs produce virtually no heat, requiring less safety protective accessories. LEDs last six times longer than CFLs and over 30 times longer than incandescent bulbs."

As part of this effort there is an ongoing project to replace interior lighting across the Region with LED lighting, increasing lifetime and reducing energy consumption.

"While the initial cost of an LED can be five times, or more, greater than that of a CFL, in the long run it is a prudent energy saving investment," said Lougen.

In fiscal year 2015 alone, Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella, Italy has seen a savings of $2 million.

NSA Bahrain supports several U.S. and coalition ships every year. Part of the support provided is removal of hazardous waste, including oily waste. With a concentrated effort, Bahrain has increased efficiency and reduced costs in dealing with the waste. In 2010-2012 Bahrain supported 210 ships, offloading 19,000 barrels of hazardous waste, reducing cost of disposal by more than $6 million.

Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti (CLDJ) is situated in a harsh climate and with that comes high use of air conditioning units throughout the entire installation. In an effort to reduce energy consumption, 900 air conditioners were replaced, reducing usage from 24,000 BTUs to 9,000 BTUs. This move alone increased the energy efficiency ratio, amount of energy used versus created, from nine to more than 12. Also, by restructuring the power grid on base, CLDJ was able to remove 72 tactical generators and parallel the two on base power plants to reduce redundant spinning, decreasing the necessary excess by approximately half.

Region EURAFSWA and NAVFAC EURAFSWA currently funds Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) at all installations throughout the Region. These contracts, in-step with the Region Energy and Resource Reduction Plan, continuously investigates alternative options in areas like power generation, lighting, heating, cooling, and building constructions. While new installations, like NSF Deveselu, are being built to current energy standards these programs will work to bring all the older installations into compliance.

"Our biggest energy savings will come from behavior changes," says Cam Betz, NAVFAC EURAFSWA Public Affairs Officer. In order to support behavior changes, each base has an installation energy manager as part of the Public Works Department to monitor power uses and affect changes to costly behaviors and patterns.

CNREURAFSWA and NAVFAC EURAFSWA are dedicated to the reduction of energy consumption and increased usage of renewable resources throughout the Region. They continuously strive to reduce the Region's carbon footprint while simultaneously supporting the Great Green Fleet initiative. CNREURAFSWA energy reduction efforts are saving the Navy money and freeing up resources supporting operational forces.


For more news from Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, visit www.navy.mil/.