Tempe, AZ (June 30, 2016) – The U.S. Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment awarded $941,469 to Arizona State University and the City of Surprise to fund the creation of the Arizona Military Energy Land Use Plan (AME-UP). In partnership with the City of Surprise, ASU is working hand-in-hand with multiple stakeholders and military installations to create interactive community planning and web tools for stakeholder development of renewable energy projects.

The AME-UP project will last the duration of 20 months, ending December 2017, and will be broken up into four phases: data collection, outreach, tool development and testing/verifying. The two outcomes of the project will be a best practices plan for assessment of existing and planned energy projects and an online interactive web-mapping tool that can be used by city and community planners, military personnel, renewable energy developers and other stakeholders.

"The goal is to create a community planning resource that will spur discussion and collaborative siting for energy projects while respecting parameters and requirements of military bases and installations," said Director of Special Projects at Arizona State University Leisa Brug Weir.

AME-UP will collaborate with government and military partners including City of Surprise, Arizona State University, Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS), Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA), the Sonoran Institute, Western Regional Partnership (WRP), Arizona Aerospace and Defense Association (AZADA), and Local Military Involvement. Leveraging stakeholder collaboration will provide information to identify best practices for engagement of stakeholders, energy-related operations and projects, and modeling and replication of assessments and best land-use areas.

“ASU looks forward to working with Arizona and military stakeholders to research and create tools for the development of innovative clean energy projects. Utilizing the knowledge base and the capacity of ASU, the AME-UP project has the opportunity to create renewable energy projects and best practices that can be replicated nationally to support U.S. military installations,” said Gary Dirks, director of  ASU LightWorks® and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU.

This information, gathered through stakeholder collaboration, will then be used to create an AME-UP information sharing platform utilizing an interactive web-mapping tool. This tool will provide expertise in geospatial information systems (GIS), mapping, renewable energy development, energy transportation and economic and policy analysis.

Please contact Leisa Brug at leisa.brug@asu.edu with any additional questions.