The Queen''s Medical Centre in Nottingham, England (source: Matt Buck / flickr, Creative Commons)The proposed geothermal heating and cooling system will harness energy from a 64 boreholes drilled to up to 250 meters depth. It had also been earlier announced that the energy-saving scheme will involved the replacement of the hospital’s single-glazed windows which had been in place since when the Queen’s Medical Centre was built. Funding for the project comes from Phase 3 of the Public Sector Decarbonization Scheme initiated by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
The new energy centre will be built and operated by European utility firm E.ON. The firm has several ongoing geothermal projects across Europe, notably in Germany and Denmark.
According to the NUH, the project will reduce the carbon emissions of the hospital by 30% initially, and that this would increase to 43% with the eventual decommissioning of the hospital’s gas-fired heating system.
The NUH is one of a growing list of NHS facilities that are transitioning to geothermal energy. A few months ago, the Salisbury District Hospital NHS Trust in Wiltshire engaged GT Energy to develop and operate a geothermal heat plant to fulfill the full heat requirements of the hospital.
