Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust says a combined heat and power (CHP) solution has underpinned a £1.5 m cut in its annual energy spend and a 20% year-on-year reduction in its projected carbon dioxide emissions.
The news came as the Carbon Trust last month launched a guide aimed at encouraging more organisations to explore CHP’s potential and explaining the technology’s benefits. The Trust (photo shows the Guy’s and St Thomas’ plant room) has worked with the Carbon Trust on its public sector carbon management programme for the past three years, culminating in it receiving a £10 m Department of Health Energy and Sustainability Fund grant to install combined heat and power engines. These have brought substantial energy cost savings, while providing heat for hospital wards and hydrotherapy pools. Alexandra Hammond, sustainability manager, said: “We are already recovering the cost of the project through reduced energy bills, and the CHP system has also reduced our carbon dioxide emissions by over 11,000 tonnes a year.” Over 35 major Carbon Trust customers have installed full-scale CHP systems in the past three years, including several NHS Foundation Trusts. In its guide, “Introducing combined heat and power: A new generation of energy and carbon saving”, the Carbon Trust says all organisations that need heat for 17 hours or more a day, at least five days a week, should consider using CHP.
