If The US Department Of Defense Gets Solar Power, Why Can’t We?

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In the topsy-turvy world of today’s federal energy policy, solar power is a bad thing. Various members of the President’s cabinet have advised that solar is  “unreliable,” and that solar power plants routinely experience “catastrophic failure” with every sunset. So why does the US Department of Defense continue to pursue solar-enabled microgrids at its facilities? Asking for a friend…

More Solar Power For White Sands Missile Range

Though some solar projects at military facilities are relatively small, they are stamped with the seal of approval from the Defense Department, and that can have an outsized influence on public perceptions about the reliability, security, and durability of photovoltaic systems.

The history-making White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico is a case in point. In February of 2025 the facility celebrated the launch of a new, 700-kilowatt solar array designed and built by the joint venture HSGS-Ameresco.

At 700 kW, the new array is peanuts compared to the megawatt scale common among modern solar power plants. However, a little can go a long way in some cases, particularly when solar is integrated with other energy resources in a microgrid that can operate independently, without interruption, if the local distribution grid goes down.

“The innovative microgrid system, which integrates a 700kW solar photovoltaic array, a 500kW natural gas generator, and a 500kW lithium-ion battery system, will provide backup power to four groundwater wells on the range,” Ameresco explained in a press statement last year, in which it described the White Sands project.

The four wells are the primary source of potable water to the main post at White Sands. The new microgrid meets a US Army requirement for up to 14 days of independent water and power delivery to the post in case of a grid outage.

“This self-sufficient energy system, designed to serve a specific geographic area, helps ensure that critical missions at WSMR can proceed without interruption,” Ameresco elaborates, adding that the microgrid underscores White Sands’s commitment to building more resilient energy systems into its future construction projects.

Ameresco also indicated that the now-familiar combineation of solar power and BESS (battery energy storage systems) will do most of the heavy lifting, with the gas generator playing a back-up role if necessary.

“The solar array captures energy from the sun during the day, while the natural gas generator provides a dependable backup power source. The lithium-ion battery system efficiently stores excess energy generated by the solar array and releases it when needed, helping to ensure an uninterrupted power supply,” Ameresco emphasized.

What Catastrophic Failure?

The role of a lithium-ion battery in the new microgrid may come as quite a shock to US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who has somehow failed to get memo about energy storage systems for solar power. Energy storage is an actual thing that exists in the space-time continuum here on Earth, but apparently not in Burgum’s corner of the mulitverse.

“And of course, when the sun goes down, you have a catastrophic failure called sunset and there’s no solar energy produced, and yet we’re subsidizing these things that are intermittent, unreliable, and expensive,” Burgum told a Fox News audience in July of 2025.

Whether Burgum believes it or not, the HGSG-Ameresco project is living proof that solar power is just as reliable as any other energy resource, with a mature supply chain and knowledge base to back it up.

Take the Florida-based firm Cantsink, for example. A specialist in  piling specialist infrastructure, Cantskin installed the supports for  the solar racking system in the new microgrid.

“Cantsink delivered a foundation system engineered to withstand the demanding conditions of a military testing range,” the company reports in a recap of the project on its website.

“Given the site conditions, pull testing was performed to determine pile requirements, which confirmed that 17’6″ piles were needed to support the racking system,” Cantsink further explains.

Among other details, Cantsink notes that the racking system is supported by 193 8×10 piles measuring 17’6″ long. “Every bolt used had a torque requirement that was inspected by a vendor appointed third party,” Cantsink emphasizes.

Next Steps For Solar Power At White Sands, And Beyond

Evidently the people in charge of energy systems at White Sands were satisfied with the results of their new microgrid, and the facility is on track to receive another solar-enabled microgrid. On November 3, the Kentucky-based global-facing engineering and infrastructure firm ABM described a new microgrid in the planning stages at White Sands, consisting of a carport-mounted solar power plant, BESS, and dispatchable on-site generators, presumably meaning gas generators for backup power.

The construction contract for the facility was assigned to ABM’s joint venture partner, AACON-RavenVolt. The AACON part of the venture is a general contractor based in Louisville, Kentucky. Ravenvolt is a subsidiary of ABM based in Georgia, having been acquired by the firm in 2022.

The relationship with RavenVolt is significant because ABM has positioned the partnership to zero in on microgrid opportunities throughout the federal government. “The partnership provides federal agencies with dependable, end-to-end energy resilience and infrastructure construction capabilities,” ABM notes.

Implications For Solar Power And EVs, Too

Keep an eye on ABM and RavenVolt moving forward, as EV stakeholders in the US anticipate an uptick in sales following President Donald Trump’s decision to start a war against Iran last February. That will increase the demand for kilowatts, and RavenVolt is among those advocating for solar-enabled microgrids to avoid grid-related bottlenecks.

“It’s all about the easy integration of on-site renewables, whether that’s solar, battery or ensuring on-site resiliency and expansion capability,” explains RavenVolt co-founder and President of Sales Cody George. The company’s microgrid model is designed for ease of installation, combining whole-of-system standardization while tailoring the switchgear to customer-specific applications.

“We’re not beholden to one technology, so our customers aren’t locked into outdated infrastructure forcing them to completely retool,” George adds.

Circling back around to military applications, it’s not surprising to see solar power resurfacing as a resilient energy resource over at the Defense Department, regardless of last year’s sharp U-turn in federal energy policy. Resiliency was front and center in the early 2000’s, when the Defense Department began pushing the envelope on solar power while the civilian market was still spinning its wheels. Solar panels were still relatively expensive back then, and the civilian market was slow on the uptake. Energy storage systems were more expensive, too.

As one indication that the Defense Department is still carving out its own energy destiny, get a load of Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth’s new “FORTRESS America” resiliency plan. The goal is to make major Defense Department facilities in the US energy independent for at least 90 days, alongside other emergency stockpiling measures.

Nuclear and fossil fuels are part of the plan, but keep an eye on the solar-plus-storage combo to be first out of the box on a speed-to-power basis.

Photo: White Sands Missile Range celebrated the launch of an on-site, solar-enabled microgrid last year, and the facility has already begun planning for another microgrid with solar power (cropped, courtesy of Cantsink).