PowerSquad - Energy Self-Supply Barracks

FTL Solar, New York, N.Y., United States

FTL Solar produces fabrics that make electricity when held up to the sun, and manufactures tents and fabric products out of them. The PowerSquad is a 16' wide by 24' long general purpose tent with no interior columns, supported by an advanced folding frame, and sleeps 12 solders. It is modular and extendable in length in 12' increments. Its flexible PV fabric fly enables it to make electricity from the sun to power its own activities. A flexible, solar PV film is permanently integrated into the surface of the tent fabric.

This tent reduces the need for portable generators and gasoline; reduces the need for delivery of gasoline in the theater; and reduces the number of convoys, thus reducing the risk to soldiers’ safety. PowerSquad is the first tent that reduces the environmental and economic impacts associated with fossil fuel energy use.

As well as integrating the flexible PVs with the structural fabric, electrical wiring and connections are also integrated into the fabric. The PowerSquad is a watertight, light tight, low UV signature tent with three operable membranes—main tent, liner, fly—to optimize comfort in four different temperature/humidity environments. The PowerSquad serves as a billeting, command and control, unit supply and field services shelter. It conforms to similar technical and operational aspects as those of the MGPTS Tent (designed by FTL), the Temper Tent and the General Purpose Tent, with the added factor that it creates its own electricity and stores it in batteries. The PowerSquad produces 1.1 kilowatts of power. The module’s total energy output is 4.12 kilowatt hours per day. Daily energy created can be calculated using five hours of sunlight (standard test conditions) and a total electrical system efficiency factor of 75 percent. Power is stored in twin batteries in the B.O.S. box (balance of systems) with a charge controller and an inverter. Additional daily power requirements can by supplied by accessorizing the PowerSquad with other FTL solar products such as the PowerMod-Single Pole.

The system is designed so individual 20' x 20' flexible PV fabric modules can be switched out and replaced with new panels as upgrades in flexible PV fabric technology and power output occur. It provides an improved modular, general purpose tent system that is energy self-supplying, operates in a mobile environment and can provide high quality support for disaster events.