Oct. 26--PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY-PANAMA CITY -- Officials here haven't shied away from energy-efficiency measures or the use of alternativeenergy technologies, as evidenced by the installation's consecutive Navyissued Gold Level energy and water management awards.

But Naval Support Activity-Panama City and other naval installations have been asked to raise the bar in the coming years, as the Navy looks to expand its use of alternative, homegrown energy and ratchet up its conservation efforts.

In an Oct. 14 speech to the Naval Energy Forum, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus laid out five energy goals for the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, with an emphasis on using less petroleum and incorporating more biofuels, hybrid vehicles and renewable energy sources.

Wells Parker, NSA-PC's energy manager, said the base has been working for years on energy-saving measures and the incorporation of alternative energy technologies, with work underway on multiple projects involving solar panels.

Parker said Mabus' five targets, including a directive that at least 40 percent of the Navy's energy consumption come from alternative sources by 2020, were attainable with the proper funding and represented "a quantum leap" for the energy goals on each base.

"I don't think that's at all unrealistic," Parker said of Mabus' goals, as he talked Wednesday about some of the base's current green projects.

In his speech to the Naval Energy Forum, according to the U.S. Navy's Web site, Mabus' goals for the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps included the 2012 creation of a "Green Strike Group" of nuclear vessels and ships powered by biofuels, a 50 percent petroleum use reduction by 2015 for commercial vehicles with the phasing in of hybrid fuel and electric vehicles, and generating half of all shorebased energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020.

Parker said the base had been operating under energy reductionandrenewablegoals issued by the Secretary of the Navy's office in 2003.

Those goals included a 3 percent annual reduction in NSA-PC's total energy usage and an increase of .4 percent each year in use of renewable energy sources.

The energy reduced is measured in each of the base's buildings, and is one of the approximately 50 criteria used in NSA-PC's Gold Level awards (which indicate very good to outstanding energy programs) for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, Parker said.

Hesaidthebasehasenergy monitorswhoassistNSA-PC's efforts in maximizing each building's energy efficiency.

"The Secretary of the Navy has been grading NSA-PC's ability to run at peak efficiency for quite some time," Parker said.