Earth-friendly methods to reduce hospital’s carbon footprint

By John Tredrea
The University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro has been built and will be operated with methods that are friendly to the environment.

 
The new hospital will be powered, heated and cooled by a cogeneration plant adjacent to the hospital building. The plant, developed in partnership with NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, is twice as efficient as traditional energy plants, said CEO Barry Rabner.
 
“The cogeneration plant has a turbine engine, to produce electricity for us,” Mr. Rabner said. “Turbines produce a lot of heat. This system captures that heat to produce steam and chilled water used in the operation of the building.” 
 
The chilled water, used for cooling the hospital, will be produced and stored during off-peak demand hours, reducing energy needs at peak times.
 
The hospital will have a field of photo-voltaic cells that will convert sunlight into electricity. 
 
“This will produce enough electricity to power 1,500 homes,” Mr. Rabner said. “The cells will be on columns above the employee parking lot. Those who drive hybrids will be able to plug their car in to the photo-volatac system, so their cars can electrially charge while they work.”
 
Mr. Rabner said use of the photo-voltaic system will reduce the hospital’s energy costs by 25 percent.
 
“It will reduce the carbon footprint even more than that,” he added. He said a $4.5 million grant from PSE&G helped pay for the system.
 
More energy savings will be realized by chilled water being produced at night, in a large underground storage tank. 
 
“Electricity is cheaper at night,” Mr. Rabner explained. “The chilled water we’ll produce at night can be used throughout the day at the hospital, to cool it as needed.”
 
To make sure the hospital always has enough power, electricity from PSE&G also will be available. 
 
“As an additional backup, we also have three diesel engines that can power most of the hospital for two to three weeks,” Mr. Rabner said. “This redundancy of power sources is there for the protection of our patients.”
 
The new hospital faces south, for maximum exposure to natural light. The glass façade of the building is engineered to maximize natural light all year yet minimize heat from direct sunshine in the summer.
 
“The front facade is all glass, so we get as much light as possible,” Mr. Rabner said. “We’ll only produce as much artificial light as necessary. Research has shown that natural light promotes healing and reduces stress. Window shades in rooms are designed to minimize the amount of direct light in August and maximize it in December.”
 
A 32-acre passive recreation park, with a path for walkers and cyclists, will be on the hospital grounds. 
 
“To build the hospital, we tore down about 25 old industrial buildings, many of them between Plainsboro Road and the Millstone River,” Mr. Rabner said. “This park by the river will be beautiful. It’ll have indigenous plantings that we’ll complete this summer.”
 
The entire Plainsboro campus uses indigenous landscaping to eliminate the need for pesticides, fertilizers or irrigation.