Harnessing the tides with a celestial solution

Space shuttle designer Lockheed Martin turns its attention to renewable energy systems

It’s an out-of-this-world approach to harnessing renewable power right here on Earth.

Lockheed Martin Corp. has been faced with recent cuts to the U.S. defense budget. Now, the world’s largest defense contractor has an entirely new mission—using its technological skill and savviness to advance the renewable energy industry.

“Lockheed Martin has been involved in energy technologies for decades, meeting the needs of a lot of our federal and defense customers,” Lockheed Martin Energy vice president Frank Armijo recently told Bloomberg. “Out of that, we have some unique technologies that we think can be offered across the energy marketplace.”

Tidal turbines apparently represent the company’s first green energy battlefield in the private sector.

Lockheed Martin Energy is currently engaged in a pilot project with Atlantis Resources Ltd. on a tidal farm in Scotland, using the AR1500 tidal turbine—based largely on Lockheed Martin’s design of U.S. space shuttles that could withstand the rigors beyond our stratosphere.

“Tidal has a need for advanced manufacturing, engineering and systems integration,” Armijo told Bloomberg in London. “We use some of the same technology that we use for our space programs to help protect the systems within the turbine.”

Lockheed Martin’s move toward diversification seems logical, given that the U.S. Department of Defense has become America’s second-largest purchaser of emissions-free electricity, behind Google, for energy security purposes.

Besides turbines, Lockheed Martin has also developed waste-to-energy technology that makes synthetic natural gas out of garbage and wood chips. Lockheed Martin also produces compact lithium-ion batteries, smart grids and miniature power systems that support renewables.

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