Guantanamo military base to be powered partly by wind
We’ve got good news and bad news. Bad news first? OK: The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is the alleged site of government-sanctioned torture, practiced on suspects whose guilt is at best uncertain, likely to leave a permanent moral scar on the nation’s soul. The good news? It’s using renewable energy! Four large windmills — two already completed — will soon begin providing 25 to 30 percent of the base’s power, marking a rare foray by the U.S. military into clean energy. Once the system, augmented by new, cleaner-running diesel generators, is fully up and running, it will represent annual savings of $2.3 million in energy costs and 13 million pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions. Much of the power goes toward producing clean water at a desalination plant, part of the base’s commitment to being entirely self-sufficient, lest it sully its, ahem, moral purity by paying for resources from its communist Cuban neighbors.
