Energy innovation centre to save Cambridge University Hospitals £30m

A new energy innovation centre which will deliver significant carbon and cost savings for Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) has received planning permission from the Council.


The energy innovation centre, which is expected to be one of the largest projects of its type in the UK, will provide low carbon heating, hot water and electricity for Addenbrooke’s and Rosie hospitals.

Work will begin on the centre next spring and is set to save CUH £30m in energy costs and cut carbon emissions by 47% over the 25 year contract term.

In addition, grid electricity will be cut by more than 50%, providing the Trust with “greater energy independence and protection from rising energy prices”.

Strategic outsourcing company MITIE will develop the centre in partnership with the NHS Carbon and Energy Fund which supports projects which meet a certain level of carbon savings.

The new energy innovation centre will house a combined heat and power unit, biomass boiler, efficient dual fuel boilers and heat recovery from clinical waste incineration.

It has been designed with the potential to provide energy to future developments on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

CUH director for corporate development, St.Clair Armitage, said: “Subject to further approvals the energy innovation centre will deliver significant economic and sustainability benefits for CUH and our partners on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The low carbon, state-of-the-art energy centre will provide us with greater energy independence and reduce the impact of rising energy prices.”

The Trust’s existing energy centre houses the NHS’s first combined heat and power plant which, for the last 20 years, has been providing sustainable energy to the expanding campus.

It also incinerates its clinical waste onsite within the energy centre and uses clinical waste produced on the campus as a fuel source to provide heat and hot water to the campus.

The new energy innovation centre will be fully operational by 2015.

Leigh Stringer

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