ELIZABETHTOWN - Nolin RECC, as part of the Fort Knox Energy Team, has received a Federal Energy and Water Management Award from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for their work at the Fort Knox Disney Barracks Complex.

This is the only DOE federal energy award in the U.S. Army this year.  

The award comes just two weeks after the Secretary of the Army Energy Award was presented to the Fort Knox Energy Team for the Disney area project.

The team consists of Nolin RECC, the Trane Company and the Fort Knox Directorate of Base Operations Support.

The group works together to implement and maintain energy conservation projects at Fort Knox.

Collectively, they have won five national awards since 1998. 

The Fort Knox Disney Barracks area consists of 38 buildings that were constructed in the 1960s.

The complex's 40-year old heating and cooling systems consumed 39 percent more energy than the new system and a poor ventilation system contributed to indoor air quality problems.

Nolin RECC worked with its partners to replace 70 percent of the existing heating and cooling systems with geothermal heat pumps and install new ventilation systems in the barracks.

The new system saves 102 million cubic feet of natural gas and more than $800,000 annually.

The money saved helps repay the loan that partially funded the project under the Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC) program that provides Fort Knox with the resources to improve facilities on the base.

“The project pays for itself,” said Gary Meredith, Fort Knox Energy Program Manager, “People in our industry are in awe of this system. We were very fortunate to find two ‘can do' companies in Nolin and Trane.”    

Nolin RECC stepped in as an energy partner with Fort Knox in 1996 when the military base found itself facing a difficult challenge due to an Executive Order and the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which mandated that all government facilities reduce energy consumption 35 percent by 2010.