INCOMPLETE U.S. Army KTA Operations Building

The Kahuku Training Area is a remote training area for the US Army. The Operations Building was previously powered by a stand-alone generator. The Army hired MK Engineers to develop a hybrid wind and solar on-site generation system to be the primary source of power for the operations center. The generator was kept as a back-up in the event that the renewable sources of power were not available. MK Engineers worked closely with the users to determine a practical application for the facility. This included having a thorough understanding of how the building was normally used to determine the viability of the proposed sustainable systems. For example, if the building was used primarily at night, the PV systems would be of minimal use unless on site battery storage was provided. The final design included a wind turbine, solar PV system, non-grid tie inverters, deep cycle solar batteries, support structures, and exterior and interior power distribution. The facility users were provided with a facility that is primarily powered from two sustainable sources (sun and wind), which allowed the building to operate off grid.