Naval Support Activity Washington (NSAW) is making big strides to save energy with the planned addition of solar energy panels to several buildings at the Washington Navy Yard (WNY) as part of the Capital Solar Challenge.

When saving energy, every little bit counts. From turning off lights when leaving a room to shutting down work stations at the end of the day, the energy saved means fewer resources expended to do a job.

Six buildings at WNY were selected to house the solar panels as part of the Capital Solar Challenge, which was launched by the White House in 2014. According to http://energy.gov, the challenge "directs federal agencies, military installations, and federally subsidized complexes to identify opportunities to deploy solar renewable energy at federal locations across the national capital region."

NSAW is the only Navy participant of seven participating federal agencies. According to Jim Watts, NSAW deputy public works officer, the total GSA procurement is about 2.7 megawatts (MW) of power across 18 buildings, with NSAW representing approximately 0.6MW of that.

"This is a nice accomplishment for NSA Washington in that we will be purchasing electricity generated from the solar arrays at a cost cheaper than electricity supplied by the grid," said Watts. "At the same time we are increasing our use of alternative energy to support SECNAV's goal of 50 percent shore-based energy requirements met by alternative sources by 2020."

The solar panels will be one of the energy conservation measures that will be highlighted by NSAW during the SECNAV's "Great Green Fleet" (GGF) in 2016. The purpose of the GGF is to demonstrate how energy efficient systems and procedure's and the use of alternative energy, contribute to combat capability, resiliency and flexibility in an operational environment.

The move to employ more solar panels at NSAW has earned high praise as well. The White House Council on Environmental Quality praised the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and Naval District Washington - which includes NSAW - team as the only Department of Defense entity included in GSA's Capital Solar Challenge contract awarded Dec. 11.

For more news from Naval District Washington, visit http://www.navy.mil/.