From patient wards to cafes, A&E departments to staff accommodation, NHS estates serve a multitude of uses. With high and consistent energy demands and an increasing need for enhanced reliability, decarbonising our National Health Service is one of the most significant and complex challenges of our generation.
The NHS has set its own target to be Net Zero by 2040 and has an ambition for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2032. Heating, the largest contributor to the NHS’s environmental footprint, accounts for a significant portion of its 5% share of UK emissions and is therefore a key area of focus.
In a webinar last year focused on heat networks in NHS trusts, Mary Aladegbola, NHS Net Zero Carbon Lead, spoke about the decarbonisation potential that heat networks can bring to the NHS. Whilst standalone electrification may require grid reinforcement and additional costs, especially with the high energy demands required for hospital buildings, heat networks can provide an effective solution for the service. Heat networks are also incredible versatile, and can utilise otherwise untapped sources of heat, such as waste energy and excess heat produced from NHS estates.
Heat networks can decarbonise heating at scale, using a centralised heat source that is then distributed to homes and buildings across an area through a network of pipes. The technology is particularly useful for high density areas and urban developments, where entire communities can be connected to sustainable, efficient heating at once. As a result, the technology is particularly useful for hospitals and other NHS buildings, providing a reliable heating solution whilst reducing their impact on the environment. Causing minimal disruption to patients and staff and removing many infrastructure and boiler costs for the health service, heat networks provide both a cost-effective and practical solution to decarbonisation. Additionally, with many heat networks across the country already implementing futureproofing measures for further expansion, NHS sites can serve as anchor loads, providing the necessary demand and density to accelerate deployment across the country. This can also justify and support the expansion of existing heat networks.
Some hospitals are already connected to heat networks; however, these can still play a part in reducing their emissions through improved heat network efficiency and reliability for patients and staff. The Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES) aims to fill this gap and has already helped to unlock efficiency improvements for NHS Trusts in England and Wales.
Most recently, NHS Trusts in Bath, Newcastle, Devon, and Carmarthenshire have received funding to improve the efficiency of their heat networks. HNES has also provided funding to teaching hospitals, helping to create a more efficient, sustainable environment for training healthcare workers.
To save costs and improve reliability, HNES has unlocked major improvements to these networks, and funded optimisation studies to investigate scope for future improvements across older networks. Funding provided to existing networks through HNES is crucial to strengthen the case for heat network expansion across the NHS. This funding ensures that existing infrastructure is up to standard and can act as an exemplar for other trusts looking to reduce and decarbonise their energy use.
Excess heat produced by the nation’s health infrastructure can also be useful for decarbonising other buildings in the local area. In Round 5, HNES provided funding to a heat network in Camden serving 1,244 homes, utilising waste heat from the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London. This sustainable low carbon heat source helps offset some of the hospital’s emissions while harnessing an untapped heat source, benefitting the local area.
Nearly all of the UK’s 30 million buildings must be decarbonised by 2050 to reach the UK’s net zero targets. Decarbonising a complex system as large as the NHS will be challenging but must be a focus for building decarbonisation. Heat networks offer a cost-effective and reliable method for creating a greener NHS whilst minimising disruption across its estates.
