Energy conservation projects across four Health Boards move Scotland closer to its Net Zero targets.
NHS Borders, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Tayside are all set for considerable energy and carbon savings as their energy conservation schemes reach completion and go live.
Now complete, the three projects are set to reduce NHS Scotland’s carbon footprint by over 12,000 tonnes over the course of their lifecycles. Additionally, NHS Forth Valley has just completed its first 12 months, adding another 2,470 tonnes of carbon reduction to Scotland’s decarbonisation targets.
The three projects were delivered by Vital Energi through the Non-Domestic Energy Efficiency Framework and include an energy performance contract which guarantees energy and carbon savings, which are verified over a 12-month period.
NHS Borders
Our team surveyed the existing energy infrastructure at Borders General Hospital and designed a range of measures which are projected to save £279,302 whilst generating 344 tonnes of carbon reduction per year. This was achieved through a mixture of upgrades to the lighting, HVAC, valves and building management systems as well as insulating pipework across the hospital and a few smaller satellite sites. We also delivered a 680 kWp solar array, generating clean energy and making the health board more self-sufficient.
NHS Lanarkshire
The health board is set to save 191 tonnes of carbon whilst achieving £172,135 of financial savings through a comprehensive mix of energy conservation measures across 2 sites which included rooftop solar PV, heating pump upgrades and building fabric improvements such as insulation, draught proofing and door glazing upgrades.
Two separate heat recovery systems have been added to the West of Scotland Laundry site, these bespoke systems have been designed to recover waste heat from both the internal space and mixed effluent of the washing machines. This achieves 715,174kWh of gas savings and 122TCO2 carbon savings annually from these measures alone.
NHS Tayside
NHS Tayside undertook a range of measures which will reduce their carbon emissions across 3 of their sites (and councils) by 186 tonnes per year whilst saving £27,389 per annum. To achieve this a range of energy conservation measures were installed, including 269 rooftop solar panels installed across 2 of the sites, a total of five air source heat pumps to provide heating and hot water to each of the sites and improved building fabric performance through measures including insulation, door and glazing upgrades and LED lighting upgrades across 2 sites.
NHS Forth Valley Completes First 12 months
In addition to three new projects entering the monitoring and verification phase, the NHS Forth Valley energy conservation project just completed its first 12 months of being live and achieved each of its key performance indicators, saving 116 tonnes of carbon per year, almost £60,000 in energy savings and reduced energy usage by over 600,000 kilowatt hours per year.
After securing additional funding, works were expanded to also include Battery Energy Storage Systems across three sites and an air source heat pump to further help decarbonise the Health Board’s estate.
Mark Anderson Associate Director of Facilities - Property at NHS Tayside, Evan Reilly Construction Degree Apprentice at Vital Energi, David Gibson Head of New Works at NHS Tayside and Scott Roe, Project Manager at Vital Energi
Mr Walsh concludes, “These projects exemplify a fundamental step transition to Scotland meeting its net zero targets, so it is imperative that they deliver as promised and the NHS realises the full carbon savings. We’re delighted to show our commitment to the decarbonisation of the NHS by helping to deliver four more projects which will make a real difference to the Health Boards and local communities.
