Marking a new phase in boosting London’s energy security and helping reduce the area’s emissions, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, through Skanska—one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups—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 (NYSE: GE).
Funded by Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL), the on-site trigeneration project at Europe’s oldest hospital is the first of its kind under a strategic collaboration between SDCL, Clarke Energy, GE and the NHS Confederation. The initiative is part of SDCL’s “Powering Health” collaboration to deliver lower-carbon, fully funded CCHP solutions to NHS Trusts, including those that are part of a private finance initiative (PFI) structure.
Clarke Energy will provide Skanska with an Ecomagination approved, 1.4-megawatt (MW) J420 Jenbacher cogeneration unit that will provide electricity and heat; a 250-kilowatt absorption chiller delivering cooling water for the hospital; and balance of plant equipment. The system will be installed to create a new energy center at the hospital to increase energy efficiency, reliability and durability and also increase financial savings.
Fiona Daly, environmental manager, from St. Bartholomew’s said, “We are delighted to be installing this CCHP plant to help us boost energy reliability and reduce our energy costs and carbon emissions. The reason for selecting Clarke Energy is due to the reduced environmental impact of GE’s reciprocating engines, which is backed by Clarke Energy’s excellent services support. This collaboration highlights numerous energy-efficiency opportunities throughout the NHS and other power-intensive industries.”
“With the St. Bartholomew project, we are excited to continue our work with our authorized sales and service provider Clarke Energy to provide Jenbacher gas engine technology to help the NHS increase the energy security of local hospitals while helping reduce their emissions by up to 25 percent or avoid up to 1,537 metric tons, which is the equivalent of more than 750 cars in Europe,” said Leon van Vuuren, general manager for GE’s Jenbacher gas engines.
Richard Byers, Skanska’s Head of green business, said, “This installation will enable St. Bartholomew’s Hospital to generate reliable on-site power in the form of electricity, heat and cooling. In parallel, the hospital will be able to divert spending on energy to boost spending on cancer research.”
Haydn Rees, managing director of Clarke Energy, said, “The main motive for installing a CCHP plant was to modernize the aging energy and heat supply system, improve the hospital’s overall power generation resilience and reduce the environmental impact. If there is ever a natural disaster or interruption of power, 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.”
GE is seeing strong demand for its Ecomagination approved Jenbacher cogeneration technology from a number of U.K. hospitals and other facilities seeking more secure, cleaner, on-site energy. Upon completion of the project, Clarke Energy will have more than 50 MW of installed cogeneration capacity with NHS. Internationally, Clarke Energy has a total of 121 MW installed hospital cogeneration and trigeneration capacity.
Based in the U.K., Clarke Energy is a longtime authorized sales and services provider for GE’s reciprocating engines in key regions, including the U.K., France, Australia, Nigeria and India. Clarke also recently was selected as GE’s first diesel engine sales and services provider for Australia, Nigeria and India.
Founded in 2005, Ecomagination is the company’s commitment to technology solutions that save money and reduce environmental impact for its customers and GE’s own operations.