Government, industry play ping-pong with green investment strategy.

• Author: Beidel, Eric

A Defense Department official compared the process of finding federal funding for green energy projects to a night out on Bourbon Street.

"It's colorful, mysterious, tempting and sinful all at the same time," said James Galvin, program manager of the Defense Department's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, a relatively new initiative that provides a test bed for green products coming out of the private sector.

But some industry representatives might add "cheap" to that list of adjectives.

Government officials and contractors agree that military energy efforts need more funding. But while Pentagon officials call for greater private-sector investment, industry leaders say they are waiting for the government to also prove it will commit resources to such programs for the long run.

During a presentation at a conference in New Orleans titled, "Where to Find Federal Funding for Energy Projects," Galvin spoke about a series of programs offering anywhere between a few hundred thousand dollars to $5 million for projects lasting as long as five years.

His program so far has funded a $1.2 million project to build an environmentally friendly fire, police and emergency response station at Fort Bragg, N.C.; a $2 million effort by General Dynamics to help install a microgrid at the Marine Corps' 29 Palms base in California; and Virgina Tech's $567,000 effort to install LED street lights at a naval station in Carderock, Md.

These are all commendable efforts, industry representatives said, but they don't represent the big bucks needed to fund game-changing energy projects.

"This reticence by government to finance large-scale energy projects has created a funding vacuum that is dependent upon the private sector to make sizable investments in a market that has not enjoyed overwhelming support," said Paul "Bo" Bollinger, general manager of government solutions at The Boeing Co.'s energy division.

Modernizing the electric grid is a case in point. Beyond policy impediments, there are the technological challenges associated with 160,000 miles of transmission lines covering the country's antiquated electric grid, Bollinger said at the National Defense Industrial Association's annual energy symposium, the same conference at which Galvin spoke.

There are more than 3,200 power-producing utilities governed by commissions and state laws that can severely limit the amount of renewable energy that can be independently produced and consumed, Bollinger...