NHS strategy heralds shift to renewable energy

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 04 Feb 2009, 19:40

New Energy Focus - 04/02/09

The National Health Service has said all hospitals should draw up strategic plans to develop more renewable energy sources.

The pledge came within a new carbon reduction strategy launched for the NHS in England, which aims to cut the organisation's environmental impact while ensuring a guaranteed energy supply.

Article continues ...

ecoworrier · Post by **ecoworrier** » 04 Feb 2009, 19:59

Combined heat and power has to be a no brainier for most hospitals,
they could power them with the waste they produce.

How many body parts does it take to power a light bulb?

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 04 Feb 2009, 21:23

ecoworrier wrote:How many body parts does it take to power a light bulb?

It would be ironic if sick people were carried to hospital in ambulances running on biodiesel made from the people they couldn't save.

Could be a potential 'conflict of interest' there somewhere.

tomhitchman · Post by **tomhitchman** » 05 Feb 2009, 02:19

Soylent green strikes again!!

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 05 Feb 2009, 02:50

They would save far more by fitting thermostatic valves on their radiators and turning the heat down a bit.

A friend of mine went to see her father in hospital and found him in a bed next to a south facing window on a sunny day with the heating full on and him suffering from heat stroke! Doesn't say much for the energy efficiency or the nursing.

Waste in the NHS is huge and fitting renewables will just add to the complacency and incompetence that causes that waste in the first place.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 05 Feb 2009, 07:41

kenneal wrote:A friend of mine went to see her father in hospital and found him in a bed next to a south facing window on a sunny day with the heating full on and him suffering from heat stroke! Doesn't say much for the energy efficiency or the nursing.

There are huge, huge savings to be made in energy efficiency in the NHS. Well at least there were in 2007 in our local hospital: heating on all the time and windows open to let the heat out if it got too hot; lights on all the time, whether needed or not, and also in parts of the hospital that weren't being used (like Out Patients in the evening).

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Feb 2009, 12:50

I had to look into this for work. Incredibly for a place that has to heat up its buildings warmer than anywhere else, and has rooms bristling with specialist electronic kit, the NHS produces no more CO2 per £ spent than schools do, and not that much more than Chateau Renewable does.

There were rumblings about waste-to-energy, but at just 2 MWh of energy per tonne of waste (typical figures: higher for wood being burned, lower for soggy organics being anaerobically digested) there simply isn't enough waste.

If you look at the problem for long enough you end up thinking: in a land free of famine and the worst of the water-borne diseases, why are so many people getting ill in the first place?

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 05 Feb 2009, 12:59

If you look at the problem for long enough you end up thinking: in a land free of famine and the worst of the water-borne diseases, why are so many people getting ill in the first place?

Because cure is easier than prevention.

Re The article.

Whats the Job of the NHS again?
Curing sick people or implementing energy policy?
How many people are going to die because effort is being taken from one to the other?

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Feb 2009, 13:11

Erm, quite.

The NHS now has a "sustaiable development Unit" whose job it is to implement all this. I wonder, what is their budget? How much energy do they use? Hospital buildings have building/facilities managers who'll know exactly what can be done to help energy performance, and have been monitoring energy/expense (on a system called "ERIC"

) already for ages. Why the heck not give grants straight to these people, who know what's needed, insted of creating a whole new layer of administration?

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 05 Feb 2009, 13:14

RenewableCandy wrote: If you look at the problem for long enough you end up thinking: in a land free of famine and the worst of the water-borne diseases, why are so many people getting ill in the first place?

Because we are all going to die anyway

The more money you spend keeping people alive by curing the simple, easy to fix and preventable conditions, the more they are going to get sick with chronic, lifestyle triggered, difficult and expensive illnesses.

We are living longer than ever, in spite of chronic obesity, lack of exercise, still high levels of smoking and poor quality and over sweet food.

However, I can see life expectancy peaking in the UK in the next decade, and then curving down as the NHS inevitably faces real cuts in the level of care and support it provides.

If we follow the Russian model alcohol will be kept cheap in real terms and the young will start dying in large numbers. The inebriated make poor revolutionaries.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Feb 2009, 13:44

RalphW wrote:
RenewableCandy wrote: If you look at the problem for long enough you end up thinking: in a land free of famine and the worst of the water-borne diseases, why are so many people getting ill in the first place?
Because we are all going to die anyway

The more money you spend keeping people alive by curing the simple, easy to fix and preventable conditions, the more they are going to get sick with chronic, lifestyle triggered, difficult and expensive illnesses.

We are living longer than ever, in spite of chronic obesity, lack of exercise, still high levels of smoking and poor quality and over sweet food.

However, I can see life expectancy peaking in the UK in the next decade, and then curving down as the NHS inevitably faces real cuts in the level of care and support it provides.

I hope they have the good sense to give up the IVF and the tummy tucks first.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 05 Feb 2009, 14:07

Or the £1m a week on anti obesity drugs?

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Feb 2009, 14:14

DominicJ wrote:Or the £1m a week on anti obesity drugs?

Oh heck I forgot about them. Imagine all that stuff ending up in the water (like Oestrogen from the Pill does at present) and making people like me even thinner (looks out at snow and shudders...)

IanG · Post by **IanG** » 05 Feb 2009, 16:02

Isn't the NHS the second largest employer on the planet, second only to the Chinese army...

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 05 Feb 2009, 16:07

Nar its about 5th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_H ... and)#Staff
Behind the chinese armed forces, the indian railways, the american armed forces, and walmart international.