With NHS emission reduction target dates looming, hospital trusts need to act now to achieve their sustainability goals. Campus heating solutions could play an important part in the net zero strategy, says Stephen Hart, Baxi’s Director of Integrated Solutions.
As part of its commitment to tackling climate change, the NHS has outlined targets for reaching net zero from its directly controlled emissions by 2040, and the emissions it can influence by 2045. Achieving its ambition to become the world’s first-ever net zero health service will require action across all areas, but decarbonising its buildings is identified as one of the greatest opportunities. More specifically, changing the way in which its hospital estates and facilities are heated will be essential to meet its first target of an 80% reduction in emissions between 2028 and 2032.
The vast scale of the NHS estate, the diversity of buildings and the differing heating systems make the decarbonisation challenge particularly complex for its energy and estates managers. Implementing a highly-efficient centralised campus heat network to deliver reliable heating and hot water to multiple buildings and facilities would provide an effective solution to the problem.
Campus heating and heat networks
Heat networks have been identified as having a crucial role to play in decarbonising heat in UK buildings. The government’s ambition is for 20% of UK heat demand to be supplied from heat networks by 2050, up from an estimated 2-3% today. Government and private sector funds are available to help increase uptake rate.
A heat network provides hot water and/or space heating to consumers in multiple buildings (district heating) or consumers in multiple dwellings within a high-rise tower block (communal heating).
Campus heating is a subdivision of district heating and operates in the same way. Where it differs from a district heating system is that the heat generator is also the owner of the buildings which are connected by underground pipes to a central energy centre.
So what compelling benefits do campus heating systems offer NHS energy and estates managers on the pathway to net zero? First, they are well suited to highly populated areas with high heat demand such as hospital facilities. Added to this is their ability to facilitate mass decarbonisation while providing greater energy security. As such, they provide an effective solution to the NHS’s heat decarbonisation challenge within a hygiene and mission-critical healthcare environment.
Third, looking ahead, there is the potential to scale up and become a heat network hub for the local community, unlocking additional future opportunities.
Designing for resilience
When it comes to design, many new heat networks use low-carbon heat sources such as heat pumps or renewable heat such as biomass. They can also use heat recovered from industry or urban infrastructure such as factories or mines and rivers.
Interestingly, CIBSE Code of Practice CP1 suggests that a hybrid engineered approach would reduce CAPEX, making more projects commercially viable while ensuring greater reliability and security as demand on the electrical grid intensifies.
In a typical scenario, 80% of the annual heat might come from the heat pump(s) and the remainder from boilers. However, to achieve the necessary resilience and network reliability that hospitals require, redundancy might need to be as high as 100%. This would mean that 3 MW of air source heat pump capacity, for example, should also have 3 MW of boiler capacity. Heat pump uptime and carbon intensity would be prioritised without the heat network encountering a heat out. And as future-proofed natural gas boilers installed today could run on biofuel tomorrow – and potentially on site-generated green hydrogen in the future – full decarbonisation is still ultimately achievable.
According to a 2022 government survey of 130 heat network operators, 48% said they would likely switch to a low-carbon heat source at the end of their generation asset lifetime. This supports the view that, rather than focusing on the carbon intensity of the technology at the outset, the priority should be to create the heat network infrastructure and ensure resilience.
Project stages
Let’s consider the stages involved. The first step is to carry out feasibility and design studies. Consider working with heat experts who can offer digital tools to provide precontract design advice and engineered solutions based on low carbon technology generators to support funding applications.
At the build stage, evaluate the latest manufacturing techniques to make installation as smooth as possible. For example, when designing the energy centre, a prefabricated packaged plant room might be considered the best solution to meet all requirements. If this is the chosen approach, look to partner with heating solutions providers who can supply full in-house offsite manufacturing and engineering capabilities as well as all the products.
Optimise system performance and drive efficient maintenance through wireless remote monitoring and control. A 24/7 real time monitor will enable engineers to diagnose any fault remotely and ensure first time visit success while analysing energy data will help identify opportunities for system optimisation. The aim should be sustainability at no cost to resilience.
In summary, campus heating systems offer a technically and economically feasible opportunity to drive the NHS net zero strategy, reduce its carbon footprint and improve financial sustainability, security and reliability. Partnering with specialists who can provide expert support at all stages will make the process more seamless and straightforward for optimal results.
To find out more visit baxi.co.uk/baxi-packaged-solutions
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