London’s St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, through its FM company, Skanska, has contracted with Clarke Energy to install a combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) plant powered by a Jenbacher gas engine from GE Power & Water.
Funded by Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL), the on-site trigeneration project is the first of its kind under a strategic collaboration between SDCL, Clarke Energy, GE, and the NHS Confederation, and part of SDCL’s ‘Powering Health’ collaboration to deliver lower-carbon, fully funded CCHP solutions to NHS Trusts, including those part of a PFI structure.
Clarke Energy – an authorised sales and services provider for GE’s reciprocating engines – will provide Skanska with a 1.4 megawatt J420 Jenbacher hospital CHP unit to provide electricity and heat; a 250 kilowatt absorption chiller delivering cooling water, and the ‘balance of plant equipment’. The system will be installed within a new hospital energy centre guaranteed to save the Trust around £8 m over its life and 2,492 tonnes of CO2 each year. The energy performance contract has been structured, procured, and delivered, through a variation to the Trust’s existing PFI contract.
The new Jenbacher engine is due to arrive on site by late this autumn, and is coloured pink, in recognition of the efforts of a team comprising representatives from all the partner organisations raising funds for cancer services. Fiona Daly, environmental manager, Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted to be installing this CCHP plant to help us boost energy reliability and reduce our energy costs and carbon emissions. We selected Clarke Energy due to the reduced environmental impact of GE’s reciprocating engines, backed by the former’s excellent services support.
“For the past three years, I have been working with the teams at Skanska, Clarke Energy, GE, and SDCL, to integrate a pink CCHP Jenbacher gas engine into the new energy centre. We chose pink to represent our fund-raising efforts, and to raise awareness of the technology throughout the project’s delivery. My aim, with colleagues and friends’ support, is to raise crucial funds to support the fantastic work Barts undertakes for patients, research, and treatment each year, through a dedicated fund at Barts Charity. We aim to raise £100,000 for cancer services at Barts, plus £6,000 to support the hard work that Cancer Research carries out in its admirable journey to beat cancer sooner.”
Haydn Rees, MD, Clarke Energy, added: “The CCHP plant will modernise the hospital’s ageing energy and heat supply system, improve overall power generation resilience, and reduce environmental impact. In the event of a natural disaster or power interruption, St. Bartholomew’s will be able to endure these external challenges due to the reliability of GE’s gas engine cogeneration technology and Clarke Energy’s equipment and services.”
