CARBON REDUCTION
climate change conference taking place in Glasgow this November. However, it remains to be seen how far governments are prepared to unilaterally tax their economies on the basis of carbon emissions without stifling competitiveness.
A roadmap to Net Zero
All health service organisations need to understand the risk in terms of where they sit now, and where they are likely to sit in the near future. In the UK, the 2028 horizon is only a matter of a few years away, being the earliest point that 80% of the 2040 net zero target needs to be hit. This means that if they have not already done so, organisations should now be identifying their carbon footprint in terms of current emissions and how these will sit with target reductions within the timescales needed. The position adopted should also take into account any planned expansion, contraction, or renewal of particular site facilities and assets. These estimates can then feed into a carbon roadmap for each site.
This roadmap will have an energy infrastructure plan that will consist of initial technology savings measures that are readily available, and which can be invested in and delivered today, followed by further future measures, that might depend on additional investment, or perhaps government funding delivered in a second or third stage. In the UK this has recently been facilitated by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), that provides grant funding for compliant technology applications, focusing on decarbonising heat as a priority. The ‘third phase’ of the roadmap should point towards an end game, that positions an organisation close to the chosen target that the roadmap is pointing to, for example the 80% reduction by 2032, or Net Zero by 2040 (UK NHS targets). It could be that the end game position is going to be ultimately reliant upon technology not yet affordable, such as workable scale heat pumps, or currently unavailable infrastructure, such as hydrogen.
The roadmap should therefore show how we get there progressively in stages. Careful planning now should indicate that measures we adopt today do not annex us from taking further steps in the future, or push solutions needed now into the long grass. It needs to be a strategy that we can build upon.
Savings ‘fast disappearing’ The graph in Figure 5 builds upon the previous graph in Figure 3 that showed a site with a gas CHP installed in 2017. It shows how the energy scheme provided significant carbon savings initially, but now, with an increasingly decarbonised electricity supply grid, those carbon savings are fast disappearing.
30 Health Estate Journal June 2021 35000 Total site energy carbon emissions – with Energy project 30000 25000
Historic emissions
Total site energy carbon emissions – without Energy project (but including National Grid decarbonisation)
NHS 2020-2040 reduction target (targeted potential impact of all NHS Carbon Footprint actions related to gas and electricity)
Stage 1 Gas CHP
Stage 2 De-steam, new gas boilers + electric heat pump + solar PV
20000
Stage 3 Reduced gas CHP operation, then retired + further decarbonisation works required
15000 Do nothing 10000
80% reduction from 1990
5000 Stage 1 0
2008 2011 2014 2017 2020 2023 2026 2029 2032 2035 2038 2041 2044 2047 2050 Year
Figure 5: Pathway to Net Zero for NHS Carbon Footprint Scope (energy only).
Remembering that grid electricity will largely decarbonise outside our immediate sphere of influence, we need to prioritise decarbonising heat. The graph shows how prioritising heat decarbonisation will get this energy scheme example back on track by introducing a low temperature heat network (de-steaming), and installing some heat pump technology to deliver a carbon savings legacy that takes the organisation beyond ‘do nothing’, and closer to the 2032 80% target. It is also clear from this graph that stage 2 is not the end-point, and that further investment will be needed to hit the 2032 80% reduction target.
If the investments made at each stage are strategically planned and delivered in a way that delivers a guarantee of continued performance and affordability,
Stephen Lowndes
Stephen Lowndes BEng (Hons), MSc, CEng, MCIBSE, MEI, Technical director at the Carbon and Energy Fund, has many years’ experience of energy project design, as well as supporting operational management, including carbon and energy management within the public sector, starting with NHS projects in the 1980s.
A Chartered Engineer and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional, he leads the Carbon and Energy Fund technical delivery team, working on all aspects of project feasibility through to construction and operational delivery.
then getting close to 2030 targets and 2040 Net Zero become more realistic, and a way forward more believable. From this standpoint can be seen the benefit of strategic investment in the fundamentals of a future-proofed energy infrastructure that can be started now (Stages 1 and 2), and that if carefully performance managed, will maintain savings throughout its life, and can ultimately be adaptable and capable of taking advantage of future technologies as they come on stream during Stage 3 and beyond.
2 3 + Off-set Savings
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References 1 Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service. NHSE/NHSI, October 2020 [
https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/ publication/delivering-a-net-zero- national-health-service].
Annual site energy carbon emissions (tCO2
e)
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