As part of a Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, set out by the UK government the grant was awarded after a competitive bidding process for a share of £1billion, earmarked for public sector bodies by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, supporting the government’s net zero and clean growth goals.
The funds will be used to achieve more than 15% emissions reductions at the Trust’s Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospital sites. This will include an air source heat pump at Charing Cross Hospital, which reduces the consumption of natural gas, by extracting heat from the air to provide heating and hot water across the site.
We embarked on our carbon reduction journey back in 2009 and have already invested £10.4 million across a range of energy efficiency projects which have helped to reduce our carbon emissions by nearly 25 per cent.
Professor Tim Orchard, Chief Executive, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Both hospitals will also benefit from a range of improved energy efficiency measures, including lighting, pumping, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, alongside better energy controls. The funds will also address some of the long-standing backlog maintenance matters, replacing old boilers and steam systems with modern, energy efficient equipment.
Solar panels will also be installed on both sites to provide a sustainable green source of electricity and reduce reliance on grid electricity.
Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said, “The climate change crisis has real implications for the health and wellbeing of our staff, patients and local communities. Securing the decarbonisation grant is a huge boost to our efforts and a great start to implementing our first comprehensive Green Plan.”
Gary Parke, Managing Director, Dalkia said:,”We are delighted to enter into a new partnership with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. This decarbonisation project will deliver a step change reduction in the Trust’s carbon footprint and put it well on the way to achieving its net carbon zero goal.“