Article by Frank Jossi, Midwest Energy News.
Five Minnesota-made electric vehicles with rooftop solar panels will soon find homes at Naval bases in Texas and Mississippi.
Manufactured by e-Ride Industries in Princeton, the low-speed vehicles can travel between 40 and 45 miles on a single charge and have the same power as a gasoline-powered small pickup.
E-Ride is among the many Midwest firms vying for business from the Department of Defense for good reason. The DOD has become a major federal funder of green projects, with $1.2 billion spent in 2010 alone. It’s also funding research through other initiatives, such as a collaboration with the Department of Energy called the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA-e.
In fact, the military set up a website, DoD Goes Green, just to track all the activity.
Every service branch is participating in green energy procurement and research, according to Phyllis Cuttino of the Pew Project on National Security Energy and Climate.
