Part of its approach is building the “Great Green Fleet.” That initiative aims to have the entire fleet of naval ships running on biofuels by 2016. Stites said they are on track to meet that goal, but the commercial fleet conversion is taking longer.
With a large fleet, some 45,000 non-tactical vehicles, 12,000 of which are medium- and heavy-duty trucks, the conversion to alternative fuels for the Navy’s fleet is taking time.
“I think on the medium- and heavy-duty side we will be pushed by 2020,” Stites said. ‘I think it’s more related to procurement because those vehicles we typically buy and keep them 10 years.
“On non-tactical vehicles, we don’t develop those; we buy them, so we look to industry for the new technologies,” he added.
Stites pointed out that the Navy’s approach to sustainability runs the gamut, including wind and solar power, including “man-packed” solar panels, which are individual solar panels that can be deployed in the field.
“[Soldiers] can put them in tandem from one to 50 to run communications, lighting,” Stites said. “And every one of those is carried on the back of a Marine as they go into the fight.”