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SolarCity Developing Military Solar Power

By Rich Smith – May 8, 2013 at 6:57PM

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Elon Musk's solar utility announces "massive" new solar project in Hawaii.

The U.S. Army is going green. And the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines as well.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk's solar-power vehicle SolarCity (SCTY.DL) announced that in addition to solar projects under way at the Army's Fort Bliss, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Peterson and Schriever Air Force Bases in Colorado, White Sands Missile Range, and Hickam Community Housing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, SolarCity has begun construction of a "massive" solar project to provide solar electricity to 6,500 military family residences at Ohana Military Communities, which serves Navy Region Hawaii and Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Like the others, this latest project is operated under SolarCity's "SolarStrong" brand name. It aims to build out 24 megawatts of solar generation capacity and will be SolarCity's largest project to date, progressing toward SolarCity's objective of installing 300 MW of solar generating capacity for the military over the next five years, enough to power 120,000 military housing units. Ultimately, through projects such as the one SolarCity is working on, the U.S. military aims to power its forces 25% through renewable energy by 2025.

Bank of America (BAC -3.32%) is providing financing for the construction.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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