Fort Rucker receives Installation Excellence Award for energy efficiency

Fort Rucker is working to set the standard for military installation energy efficiency.

Fort Rucker was recently honored by the Association of Defense Communities for meeting the challenge of reducing energy consumption head on with the help of Alabama Power Company.

Due to the installation's efforts, Fort Rucker was awarded the ADC's Installation Excellence Award after being nominated for the honor by the city of Enterprise.

The award was presented at a special ceremony June 5 on Capitol Hill during the Defense Communities National Summit.

Enterprise Mayor Kenneth Boswell, Fort Rucker Garrison Commander Col. Stuart McRae, Friends of Fort Rucker Chairman retired Brig. Gen Rod Wolfe and representatives from Alabama Power were all on hand for the special occasion.

"We are honored to have nominated Fort Rucker for the Installation Excellence Award. Fort Rucker is a friend to Enterprise and a valuable asset to our area," Boswell said. "The work being done there from training men and women to be highly skilled aviators to conserving energy in partnership with Alabama Power is second-to-none. The leadership at Fort Rucker has the nation's and the soldier's best interests at heart and I am proud to call them a friend of the city of Enterprise and the Wiregrass area."

In response to a federal mandate to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015, Fort Rucker made plans to install $18 million in energy conservation measures.

The new measures will help Fort Rucker save $2 million annually.

The entire energy reduction plan should be complete by September.

So far, Alabama Power has installed $1.7 million in energy efficiency measures including lighting, lightning sensors, HVAC upgrades, infrared heat, LED outdoor lighting and an innovative heat pump water heater connected to a boiler.

Plans are in the making for installing state-of-the-art high efficiency chillers located in a new central chilled water plant along with a chilled water loop. Other upgrades include new heat recovery systems, high-efficiency boilers and solar water heating.

Once installed, these systems will reduce the installations energy usage by 10 percent.

"As our nation and the Department of Defense strive for energy efficiency, the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence has achieved and exceeded its energy efficiency goals through the use of innovative partnership," said ADC President Bob Murdock. "Other installations are now following the leadership of Fort Rucker and Col. Stuart J. McRae."