Recently, RAF Leeming hosted the inaugural Air Climate Change & Sustainability (CC&S) Energy Resilience Showcase.
Coordinated by Group Captain Maurice Dixon, and the Air CC&S Team, this event brought together key figures from across defence, industry, and academia to discuss the critical challenge of ensuring our military is energy resilient in a fossil fuel-constrained future.
The event highlighted the progress being made to understand and prepare for a future operating environment where fossil fuels will be increasingly scarce. In order to adapt, defence has recently delivered new energy strategies; to mitigate against and reduce the risk posed by energy insecurity, and to ensure it remains operationally resilient and capable of maintaining military effectiveness.
Energy resilience also plays a major role in the RAF’s target to reduce its emissions towards net zero. This showcase highlighted how the transition to decarbonise also mutually provides the opportunity to generate, store and distribute mission critical energy using new, clean energy technologies. This allows stations to create their own energy on or near to sites, and enables defence to operate off-grid for periods of time in the event of power outages or future conflict.
The showcase, which received an opening address from Air Commodore Will Dole as Head of Air Infrastructure, enjoyed a brief from Dr. Alex Howe, Deputy Director of the Estate Energy Review from the Ministry of Defence’s Climate Change and Environment Directorate, on why energy resilience is essential for our future as an effective military.
Briefs followed from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and its prime infrastructure contractors, Vivo, Vinci and Mitie, speaking to “The Big Green Five” initiative, focusing on CC&S technology and innovations being brought to the defence estate. This included energy resilience and decarbonisation in the larger areas of electrical capacity optimisation and the implementation and exploitation of Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS), whilst also recognising the smaller, but effective initiatives such as the retrofit of low emission LED lightbulbs together with supporting the decarbonisation of our ground fleet addressing Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure (EVCi) standardisation.
CC&S colleagues from the Royal Navy, British Army, and UK Strategic Command also delivered inspiring presentations, speaking about similar initiatives taking place across their respective commands. Encouraging collaboration across defence between all parties involved in the energy resilience and decarbonisation of the estate, the event agenda provided an opportunity for attendees to network and engage with their peers. This also included representation from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Newcastle University (Project ViTAL), ULEMCO (showcasing the joint innovative hydrogen powered aircraft tug vehicle aided by Teeside Airport), and the US Visiting Forces.
As the world faces the impact of climate change and constrained energy supplies, energy resilience has become a key strategic priority and one the RAF must take very seriously. This Energy Resilience Showcase provided a platform for experts to share insights and solutions to these challenges to a diverse, but mutually connected, audience.
Hosted by RAF Leeming, under the leadership of the Station Commander, Group Captain Paul Hamilton, the station has become the RAF’s ‘living laboratory’ to help the RAF understand and implement the complexities of decarbonising an RAF station. Supported by the, on site, RAF Experimental (RAFX) Innovation Hub, their goal is ‘unleashing, empowering and enabling our people, to reach their full potential, and create the next generation air force’. Project ViTAL, a partnership between RAF Leeming and Newcastle University, enabled collaboration between world leading academia, defence, industry and supporting organisations to quantify carbon reduction by conceiving, designing, testing and evaluating zero carbon interventions. Project IOTA involved the delivery of a private 5G network for collaborative defence network experimentation, a partnership with ‘aql’. Finally, Project Wellness, in cooperation with Durham University, was implemented to improve the mental health and general wellbeing of all personnel serving at RAF Leeming. This includes serving personnel, spouses, families, civil servants, and contractors.
