The Air Force has awarded a $7.3 million contract towards the construction of a one-megawatt solar power plant at Buckley AFB, Colo. The Denver Business Journal reported Tuesday that the US division of London-based AMEC received the contract to design the solar photovoltaic system for the base. According to the newspaper, AMEC intends to complete the project in just over a year. The Buckley initiative is just one of USAF’s solar energy projects. The service is erecting a three-megawatt solar farm at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, is promoting the creation of a solar energy system at Edwards AFB. Calif., and just recently began operation of a new 220-kilowatt solar plant at Hill AFB, Utah.
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”