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What do US military bases use? Apache/Abrams turbines? Seems like those are ubiquitous enough to warrant more, smaller redundant generators? I wouldn’t say I e

• zdragnar 2y ago
  Nah, they buy local electricity and have a big mess of diesel generators for redundancy. Nothing beats being able to make field repairs quickly and easily when crap hits the fan. Abrams use a turbine for the weight to power output ratio, optimizing mobility rather than efficiency.
  • datavirtue 2y ago
    Abrams power plant was a political choice.
    • zdragnar 2y ago
      Ostensibly, the Abrams turbine can use a wider range of fuels, including diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, and provides more power for less weight to get higher mobility and agility in the field. Those are some pretty compelling advantages when your life depends on it, if they actually do that and don't break down every other day. Without enough personal experience to compare, though, I can't say that I'd be surprised either way.
• quickthrowman 2y ago
  > What do US military bases use? They would use electricity from the grid, why bother generating power specifically for the base? Outsource the capital and maintenance costs to a utility. Some land-grant universities generate their own power and some industrial sites have their own dedicated hydropower, but a military base would just use the grid. For critical/backup power needs at the base itself, a combination of UPSes and diesel generators, just like any other commercial or industrial facility. Diesel gensets are an extremely mature, well understood technology that are very reliable and cheap to maintain.