Published on: 11 February 2020
A new £6 million, state-of-the-art energy centre at South Tyneside District Hospital is delivering major benefits environmentally and economically.
The development ensures that the hospital site can continue to serve future generations of families for years to come.
The project involved the building of a new boiler house and the introduction of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit, which offers the capability to make more efficient and effective use of valuable energy resources, meet heat requirements that otherwise would require additional fuel to be burnt and help reduce carbon emissions.
CHP is a highly efficient process that makes use of the heat that is a by-product of the electricity generation process which would otherwise be wasted, thereby reducing energy consumption and costs and improving environmental performance.
The waste heat from the CHP unit at South Tyneside District Hospital is in the form of low-grade hot water which is being used for heating. Gas is used to generate electricity, aiding sustainability by reducing reliance on the National Grid. By generating heat and power simultaneously, CHP can reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% compared to the separate means of conventional generation via a boiler and power station.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Ken Bremner said: “This development represents significant investment in the infrastructure of the South Tyneside District Hospital site. It demonstrates not only our total commitment to continuing to provide local services for local people whilst improving the working environment for our staff, but also our determination to become more environmentally sustainable and improve economic efficiency.”
The energy centre replaces the old boiler system, much of which was almost 40 years old.
