By Jeremy Deaton

Kevin Johnson graduated from West Point at an inauspicious time, shortly after September 11th, just as the United States was launching simultaneous wars on the far side of the globe.

In 2004, Johnson was deployed to Bayji, the oil-refining capital of Iraq. Pipelines, stretched across the region like arteries, carried crude oil to refineries in the heart of the country, where it was processed before being shipped south for export.

Bayji’s oil facilities were a frequent target for insurgents. Johnson served in the heat of oil fires that erupted from routine attacks on pipelines and processing equipment.

“For me, that was a key wake-up call,” Johnson said. “You have 100 soldiers asking you every day what we’re doing there, and it was hard not to see the combination of the economy of Iraq being based on oil exports and the attacks there on the infrastructure.”

The experience clarified the U.S. strategic interest in the Middle East and its endless presence in the conflict-prone region. Johnson believed America’s addiction to fossil fuels would continually put U.S. troops in harm’s way. After he left the Army, he pledged to tackle the energy problem.

For Johnson, that meant working in solar, an inexhaustible source of power for homes, factories and electric vehicles. Now he runs CleanCapital, a renewable-energy investment firm he founded with, among other partners, a fellow Army veteran.

Johnson with Michelle Obama at a White House event where companies committed to train or hire veterans. Source: Kevin Johnson

“The most challenging thing for veterans is that transition process and finding that same level of mission-driven culture in their professional careers,” he said. “The solar industry, specifically, provides that.”

Nearly one in 10 solar workers are veterans, and many, like Johnson, are industry leaders, having founded their own companies. Nat Kreamer, chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association is a former Navy officer who earned a Bronze Star while serving in Afghanistan. Under his leadership, the solar sector has committed to hiring 50,000 vets by 2020.

The ranks of solar firms are filled with men and women like Kreamer and Johnson, veterans who guarded Army fuel convoys in Afghanistan, or served aboard Navy destroyers that kept international shipping lanes safe for oil tankers.

“I served in the active Army for eight years, three months and 28 days,” said Nick Boateng, a veteran now working in solar. “From the experiences that I had, I noticed that one of the main reasons we were fighting these conflicts was resources.”

The U.S. Army is increasingly deploying solar power in the field. Above, soldiers assemble a solar shade canopy during a training exercise. Source: United States Army

Boateng talked about the lives lost or ruined in conflicts overseas. He recounted veterans wounded physically and psychologically by war, and the high price paid by their families.

“The first time I came upon a blown-up vehicle, and there was burning flesh — that stuff never goes away,” he said. “War destroys people’s lives.”

If it was Boateng’s years in the Army that inspired his doubts about fossil fuels, it was a trip to Ghana, his country of birth, that made him a solar convert. During his visit, Ghana was beset by rolling blackouts, but Boateng discovered one home that managed to keep its lights on.

“I was curious how that house wasn’t running a generator but still had electricity,” Boateng said. “When I went there, I noticed they were running a solar PV system.”

Boateng dreamed of erecting solar arrays all over Ghana, but he knew almost nothing about the industry. So, he signed up for classes through the GI bill and snagged a job at the Los Angeles office of GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that performs free solar installations in depressed communities.

“Right now, my primary job is here in California,” he said. “The project I’m working on in Ghana is a progressive thing that I am phasing in over time.”

These days, most service members don’t need to fly overseas to see solar power at work. As part of an ambitious plan to rein in consumption of costly and dangerous fossil fuels, the Pentagon is installing solar facilities at bases all over the country. Last year, for example, the Navy broke ground on a 4 MW solar array at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Mississippi, and the Army unveiled a titanic 30 MW solar array at Fort Benning in Georgia.