Army launches second tranche of Strategic Capital Initiatives to bolster energy resilience

The U.S. Army has opened a fresh round of competition for private developers to build and run commercial power plants on Army property, a move aimed at hardening key installations against grid disruptions while modernizing military energy infrastructure.

The request for proposals, released June 15 as part of Tranche II of the Army’s Strategic Capital Initiative under Pillar 1: Energy Resilience and Dominance, seeks long-term enhanced use leases for projects that would feed electricity into regional markets during normal conditions and switch to supplying “islanded” power to bases during extended outages. Proposals are due June 29.

Seven locations are in scope for this round: Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Detrick in Maryland; Fort Drum and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York; Letterkenny Army Depot and Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania; and Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

Under the public‑private model, selected partners would finance, design, construct, operate, and ultimately decommission the facilities without direct Army funding. The service would contribute non‑excess land via a lease expected to run up to 50 years initially.

Projects must be capable of operating independently from the grid if an outage lasts beyond four hours and sustain mission‑critical activities on the host installation for a minimum of two weeks. During normal operations, electricity would be sold to a third‑party buyer arranged by the developer, creating a commercial revenue stream while strengthening regional reliability.

The Army says it will consider a range of technologies, including solar, natural gas, geothermal, and nuclear, with nuclear units limited to 500 megawatts each. In lieu of cash rent, the service prefers in‑kind consideration under 10 U.S.C. § 2667 that upgrades installation infrastructure, bolsters mission capabilities, or reduces Army costs. Providing assured power to the host base is a required condition of the lease but is not counted as the primary form of rent.

The solicitation underscores the Pentagon’s increasing reliance on private capital and expertise to bolster energy security across the force, reflecting concerns about grid reliability amid extreme weather, cyber threats, and aging infrastructure. Further details on award timing and project selection criteria beyond the RFP were not immediately available.