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Birmingham Heartlands Hospital’s award-winning low carbon energy centre, that is achieving exceptional environmental performance and cost savings, was officially opened last month by Lord Whitty, President of the Combined Heat and Power Association.
The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has implemented an ambitious £5m energy efficiency programme that has reduced its primary energy consumption by 21%; CO2 emissions by 42%; and the utility spend by 24%.
The centre, which was designed, constructed, operated and financed by clean technology business ENER-G (www.energ.co.uk), is reducing the hospital’s CO2 emissions by more than 5,600 tonnes this year, which equates to the environmental benefit of 560,000 trees. Emissions of other harmful green house gases, such as Sulphur Dioxide, have also been reduced. In addition, ENER-G has guaranteed £688,000 costs savings each year.
At the heart of the energy centre is ENER-G’s combined heat and power (CHP) trigeneration technology. The CHP system generates electricity and recovers the majority of the heat created in the process. In conventional power stations this heat is simply wasted into the atmosphere through power station cooling towers, much energy is also lost along the many miles of electrical distribution cables needed to bring the power to site. Instead, by using CHP to generate electricity on-site the heat is used to provide heating, steam and hot water for the hospital in the winter, and, via the absorption cooling system, to also provide chilled water for air conditioning in the summer months.
The innovative CHP scheme won the Combined Heat and Power Association’s Sustainable Development Award last year. The top industry accolade recognises the CHP scheme that has had the greatest impact in meeting the sustainable development goals of a commercial or public sector organisation.
Lord Whitty said: “This innovative trigeneration project at Birmingham Heartlands is a vivid and impressive illustration of how CHP can be used as the cornerstone of long-term public/private partnerships that deliver measurable environmental, economic and operational benefits.
“The role of the NHS in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is difficult to overstate. As a contributor of some three per cent of England’s total carbon dioxide emissions, there is a compelling need to harness effective carbon abatement strategies, not least CHP.”
Lord Whitty added: “The Trust and its partner, ENER-G, are to be applauded for developing and delivering a system that brings these multiple advantages to the local community here in Birmingham.”
As well as installing and operating the trigeneration CHP system, ENER-G financed the programme which is structured around a 15-year public/private partnership contract and includes a £403,000 grant from the Carbon Trust under the government’s Community Energy Programme.
The agreement provides the NHS Foundation Trust with a guaranteed level of performance and savings over the contract lifetime.
The new Energy Centre replaced ageing coal-fired boilers. Work carried out by ENER-G involved switching fuel from coal to natural gas, including a new gas main; replacing heating mains and upgrading numerous plant rooms. A 1164kWe CHP unit and 300 kW absorption chillers were installed.
For more information contact:
Zita Pálosi, Marketing Services Manager
ENER-G
ENER-G House, Daniel Adamson Road, Salford MANCHESTER M50 1DT
T: +44 (0)161 745 7450 F: +44 (0)161 745 7457 E: marketing@energ.co.uk W: www.energ.co.uk
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