The UK Green Investment Bank will provide $27 million of funding towards a new energy innovation center for Cambridge University Hospital’s National Health Service Foundation Trust.

The Trust provides healthcare for people in the Cambridge area and runs Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Rosie Hospital.

This will be the Green Investment Bank’s first investment in a National Health Service Foundation Trust, and the bank’s participation will garner a further $27 million of private capital into the project from Aviva Investors Realm Infrastructure Fund, which is providing the balance of the investment.

The new energy innovation center will house a combined heat and power unit, biomass boiler, efficient dual fuel boilers and heat recovery from medical incineration. It will provide heat and power to the Addenbrooke’s and Rosie Hospitals.

As an alternative to sourcing power from the National Grid, the Trust will benefit from the energy center’s materially lower energy costs and carbon emissions, with savings of over $30 million in energy costs over the 25-year operational term of the project. The project is subject to final planning approval.

MITIE has been awarded the contract to develop the energy center and then operate it throughout the 25-year term.

UK Green Investment Bank Chairman, Lord Smith of Kelvin said “Non-domestic energy efficiency is a priority sector for the Green Investment Bank and this deal is an early demonstration of our strategy to partner with co-investors and deliver a commercial return to the bank.”

The UK Green Investment Bank was formed as a public company in May 2012. With $4.5 billion of funding from the UK government, it is the first bank of its kind in the world. It is a for profit bank, whose mission is to accelerate the UK’s transition to a more green economy. The bank became fully operational in October 2012 when it was granted State Aid approval by the European Commission to make investments on commercial terms.