NIWC Atlantic applied for the grant through an Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) 2021 Federal Agency Call (FAC), designed to provide direct funding to federal agencies for the development of energy and water efficiency projects and processes that address climate change mitigation and/or adaptation.
AFFECT 2021 FAC funding is intended to initiate, supplement, improve or otherwise increase the viability and adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions involving energy efficiency, clean energy and operational resilience at federally owned facilities by leveraging the use of a privately financed performance contract in the form of an ESPC.
“This grant is a welcome resource that assists us in doing our part to meet DOE and the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) goals,” said NIWC Atlantic Engineering Supervisor John Mistak. “It allows us to use their resources, in combination with our own, to help turn the threat of climate change into an opportunity, and lead through the power of example toward the goal of building a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions.”
NIWC Atlantic's project will provide a comprehensive approach to enhancing its climate change adaptation-resilience posture and energy efficiency across its sites located in South Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana. The command will deploy solar and other renewable electricity technologies to enable renewable back-up generation while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Additionally, NIWC Atlantic will execute data center upgrades, R-22 refrigerant replacement and other energy conservation measures (ECMs), such as improved lighting systems and water fixtures. These resilient and energy-efficient ECMs will reduce GHG emissions and enable 14 days of off-grid operation. As a result, the realized savings from these initiatives will also give the command and its contracting partner the opportunity to work toward completing other future ECM projects.
The NIWC Atlantic project was one of 17 federal agency projects to receive a combined total of $13 million in AFFECT funding; the grants will lead to a total investment of over $737 million when leveraged with energy performance contracts, such as ESPCs and utility energy service contracts, from private industry.
As a part of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, NIWC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.