Sacramento Hospital Goes 50% Solar with 736-Kilowatt Array
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 10. 8.08
Solar Powered Hospital: Healthy & Clean
Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital in Sacramento, California, is part of the Sutter Health organization, a not-for-profit group of hospitals and other health care service providers, has decided to go solar. Or at least, half-solar. 50% of its electricity needs will be provided by a 736-kilowatt solar array installed over the employee parking lot (probably shading the cars, reducing the need for air conditioning) and with a ground-mounted tracking system on the adjacent property.
Read on for more details.
Promoting Good Health
Mitch Hanna, Chief Administrative Officer of Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, said:
Over the past few years we’ve been looking for innovative ways to strategically manage our energy and help the environment. As health care professionals it is important that we promote good health in the community and support a healthy environment as well.
Third-Party Finance and Maintenance Agreement
Under the terms of of their contract for the solar power system, Tioga Energy will finance, own and operate the solar array (which will be designed and built by SPG Solar), and Sutter Auburn Faith will simply purchase the power generated at predictable rates for the contract term.
The hospital will benefit from immediate electricity savings and a long-term hedge against future electricity price volatility. Everybody's happy, including nature.
Via Yahoo News
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That's cool. A place that promotes health should also promote a clean living environment.
It's also especially prudent as hospitals require a constant supply of power, especially in the chance of an outage. This would also significantly reduce their need for diesel generators when that happens. Very nice!
This hospital is actually about 30 miles north east of Sacramento. It is a beautiful area and I am glad to see hospitals begin to take the initiative to reduce their impact on the environment.
I wish more hospitals would do this. It can reduce costs, provide reliable energy, and people will definitley respect the hospital more for being environmentally friendly.
Now if only they can stop dumping drugs down the drain...that's a lot easier to do.