When the Grid Goes Down, the Mission Must Go On. Solar and Storage Can Help.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has set a clear standard for military readiness. Even if an adversary disables the civilian power grid, America’s bases must stay lit, its aircraft must keep flying and its command centers must remain online.

His FORTRESS America initiative calls for every major military installation to generate its own power, independent of the civilian grid. “If an adversary takes down the grid by cyberattack, by sabotage, or by any means, our bases stay lit,” Secretary Hegseth said. “Our aircraft keep flying. Our command centers never go dark.”

That is the right goal. Meeting it will require the Pentagon to use every resource that can strengthen military readiness.

Addressing that vulnerability will take an all-of-the-above approach. Nuclear, natural gas, solar, batteries and backup generators should be judged by what they contribute to the mission. American solar and storage are not substitutes for every other resource. They are proven tools that should have a lasting place in the military’s energy defenses.

Solar and batteries can help make those fuel supplies last longer. Integrated with existing generators through a properly designed microgrid, they also allow a base’s installation to share power and prioritize critical operations. FORTRESS America's new program office already points in this direction with its energy pillar calling for microgrid capability at critical installations.

They can also be built quickly. Microreactors and new gas plants may eventually give bases firm power of their own. But a large gas turbine can take five years or more just to obtain, while builders report finishing construction on large solar projects in roughly 12 to 16 months.

Solar and storage already work alongside other power sources on military bases. At Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Army paired a floating solar array with battery storage at Camp Mackall to supply power during outages. At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, a microgrid combining solar, natural gas, landfill gas, and diesel disconnected from the grid in a daylong exercise and supported the flight line and about 100 critical buildings.

FORTRESS America also aims to secure domestic and allied supply chains, and the Pentagon can buy these systems in a way that advances that goal. Since 2022, 146 new solar and storage factories have opened in the United States. Those investments give the Pentagon an opportunity to strengthen military readiness while supporting the American industrial capacity needed to produce and maintain these systems.

That requires more than choosing a supplier. The Pentagon should demand transparency about where critical components and control software originate, favor domestic and trusted allied sources, and ensure that foreign adversaries cannot remotely access the systems protecting American installations. A base hardened against grid attacks should not depend on an adversary's factories.

To turn Secretary Hegseth’s objective into stronger defenses, the Pentagon should identify the operations on each installation that cannot go dark, including command centers, flight lines and communications, and start with bases where proven designs can be added quickly. It should prioritize bases where proven systems can be integrated quickly, while cutting the bureaucratic red tape that slows those improvements.

Success should be measured by how long critical operations can continue without the commercial grid, not simply by megawatts installed. That keeps the focus where it belongs, on sustaining the mission rather than meeting a target for any particular technology.

America’s military installations must have the power to carry out their missions, even when the civilian grid fails. The politics of energy will always be debated. Whether our forces have the power to carry out their missions should not be. 

Secretary Hegseth has set the right objective. FORTRESS America should put every proven advantage to work to meet the mission. For solar and storage, the case is practical. Integrated with other power sources, they can help keep critical operations running, extend backup fuel supplies and give commanders more options in a crisis. Those advantages deserve consideration on their merits. 

Putting American solar and storage to work is one way to deliver on a readiness-first approach. When these technologies can strengthen our defenses, they belong in our arsenal.

LTC John Szoka (U.S. Army, ret.) USA is the CEO of the Conservative Energy Network and a former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he served as chairman of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee.