Hospitals Save $2.3m a Year with CHP Plants

by | Oct 3, 2011

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Combined heat and power systems at Guy’s Hospital (pictured) and St. Thomas Hospital, both in London, are saving more than £1.5 million ($2.3 million) and almost 11,300 tons of CO2 a year.

The hospitals, which together employ 10,000 people and serve more than 850,000 patients a year, used a £10 million grant from the Department of Health’s Energy and Sustainability Fund to install the plants..

They started up the systems in 2009. Each plant uses one of GE’s 3 MW Jenbacher J620 gas engines.

U.K.-based Clarke Energy installed the CHP systems, which provide the hospitals with all of the heat and hot water needed during the summer as well as half the required heat in the winter. The plants also generate about half of the hospitals’ electricity.

The U.K.’s National Health Service is the largest “single-payer” health care system in the world and, according to Business Insider, the world’s seventh largest employer. N.H.S. England’s 2010-11 budget was over £100 billion, according to the U.K. Department of Health.

In 2009, NHS hospitals accounted for 3 percent of all emissions in England, with one-fifth of those emissions coming from procurement – drugs, medical equipment, and food. Last week the U.K.’s National Health Service said it has begun assessing the carbon footprint of health care procurement.

GE’s London projects also include the installation of Jenbacher gas engines at two natural gas and biomass-fueled energy centers being built in the Olympic Park and Stratford City developments.

These will provide 10 MW of power, heating and cooling for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and will help the Olympic Delivery Authority reach its target of a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions through the use of renewable and alternative energy sources, GE says. The energy facilities also will support new buildings and communities developed after 2012.

Picture credit: Lee Jackson

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