MILWAUKEE, WISC. and SANTA RITA, GU — The U.S Navy has enlisted Johnson Controls Inc. in a $34.1 million energy efficiency and conservation project at the naval base in Guam.

The energy savings performance contract between the Navy and Johnson Controls is expected to save $1.7 million a year in energy costs at U.S. Naval Base Guam, cut use of electricity by 6.4 Mwh a year and make renewable energy the source of about 3 percent of the electricity used on base, according to the contract partners.

The Navy has a goal of using renewables for 25 percent of its energy needs by 2025.

The project on Guam includes installing a large-scale solar photovoltaic power system; improving HVAC controls, which includes retrofitting 87 air handlers; upgrading more than 9,000 lighting fixtures for energy efficiency; and installing Johnson Control's Metasys building management system, the company's Web services-based facility management platform, for 49 of the buildings at the base.

The work is part of a larger Navy initiative to make its facilities, ships and operations more energy, water and fuel efficient.

Navy ships have saved more than $99 million in fuel costs during 2009 fiscal year, the Navy announced last week, citing the latest savings produced by its Incentivized Energy Conservation Program.

Johnson Controls detailed its role in the Navy project in Guam -- and in other government energy efficiency projects -- today as the federal government's training conference and tradeshow on energy gets under way in Rhode Island. The four-day 2009 GovEnergy Show, "Charting a Course to Energy Independence" is for government facility managers and vendors. 

Other Johnson Controls efficiency projects include:

• An energy savings performance contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The project begun last year introduces a biomass gasification system and other advanced energy conservation measures to the facility, the Department of Energy's largest science and energy lab. The biomass gasification system is expected to produce an estimated $8 million in annual energy savings. It replaces a natural gas-fired steam plant and steam distribution system and reduces fossil fuel consumption by 80 percent.

• An energy savings performance contract with the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland that is expected to save more than $2 million in annual energy costs and reduce energy intensity by 30 percent by 2015. The project at the Army's oldest active proving ground includes boiler plant and HVAC improvements and installing energy efficient lighting at 81 buildings.

• An energy savings performance plan at Fort Bliss in Texas that is expected to reduce energy intensity by 30 percent through 2015 while yielding more than $500,000 in savings annually. The work at the Army installation includes retrofitting lighting fixtures in 56 buildings for energy efficiency, installing light occupany monitors in 25 buildings and installing a solar water heating system at the aquatic center.

_{USS Boxer  — U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Karl J. Launius/Released}