South African hospitals present huge opportunities for renewable energy projects

One of the key messages from this year’s Africa Energy Indaba 2011, recently held at the Sandton Convention Centre, is that the global energy landscape has changed significantly and that South Africa would have to lead the way in meeting the energy needs of the subcontinent within a global context.

However, South Africa on its own constantly struggles with meeting the high demand for energy by hospitals, businesses and consumers, yet alone paving the way for the rest of Africa.

Hospitals are of the largest energy users, since they are operational 24 hours a day, every week, every month, every year.

Over 60% of hospitals and healthcare facilities are not meeting the minimum Energy Performance Index criteria.

According to the recent Confederation of Indian Industry report, “Energy Efficient Hospitals – visiting the realities”, the main causes for this are heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as lighting.

For the South African government, the immediate challenge is dealing with urgent needs of poverty and underdevelopment, which requires even more energy resources for health, education and other social considerations, adding to the already looming crisis.

However, these constraints on electricity supply highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in how the national power grids of the future will operate.

With the call for clean energy alternatives to replace reliance on coal-fired generation, nuclear power is likely to make up a greater part of South Africa’s energy mix in future.

The African Development Bank approved a loan of $365 million to Eskom, which the state power utility requires as part of its renewable energy project build programme in line with the government’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

In terms of the newly unveiled IRP, which would allow the country to meet the forecasted demand at minimum cost, nuclear power will make up 23% of all new electricity generation capacity in 20 years. Coal, which currently meets about 92% of demand, will account for only 48%; renewable energy sources 16.5%; and hydro-electric and gas-generated power 22%.

However, gas-generated, hydroelectric and nuclear power are not as kind to the environment as renewable energy sources that come from readily available natural sources such as the sun, wind, geothermal (heat in the interior of the earth) and biomass (plant materials and animal waste).

With South Africa’s abundant sunshine, solar energy is one of the most popular and easily accessible renewable alternatives, with solar water heater installations being subsidised by Eskom – which could be a major help for hospitals.

Industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan, recently said that South Africa is a potential solar gold mine.

Outlined in the aforesaid IRP is the solar photovoltaic (PV) plan, allocating 8 400 megawatts of solar PV to be built by 2030, rolling out 300MW a year of large-scale solar PV from 2012 onward – thereby creating a significant number of jobs.

By February 2012, the Gauteng Provincial Government would have finalised its Green Economy Plan, which could serve as an example for the other provinces.

According to Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, the province is working toward big public hospitals generating their own energy supply sourced from recycling of medical waste, using cutting-edge technology.

The new Khayelitsha District Hospital in Cape Town, currently in development and scheduled for completion by January 2012, is one of the first newly constructed government buildings to join the global initiative to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by installing a solar and wind grid-connected power plant.

Power Solutions (Pty) Ltd will design and install the 25-kilowatt solar PV system, and a two-kilowatt wind energy system consisting of two vertical axis wind turbines that would feed power into the hospital’s electricity grid. The solar PV system will consist of 108 solar panels that are connected to two top-quality grid inverters.

SunTank, a leading solar heating company in South Africa, recently completed two commercial-size solar water heating installations for the government at the Worcester Provincial Hospital and Germiston Hospital. These solar energy systems are designed to achieve a significant reduction in the hospitals’ electricity consumption.

In 2008, Netcare Technical Services and Energy Resource Optimisers, an Eskom-registered energy services company, embarked on an intensive four-month energy savings feasibility study at 14 Netcare hospitals.

The study was performed in conjunction with Eskom’s Integrated Demand Management department.

Suggested initiatives, identified through the study, were later successfully implemented – resulting in significant savings of more than R1.2m, which exceeded initial estimates.

Many of Netcare’s reductions in energy expenses were achieved through the installation of energy-efficient equipment, active control of selected loads, and a variety of lighting and water-heating initiatives.

The majority of the magnetic ballast light fittings across Netcare hospitals was replaced with electronic ballasts to reduce energy consumption and to extend the life of the lamps, resulting in lower maintenance costs. Incandescent lamps were replaced with compact fluorescent lamps, which consume much less energy and last up to 15 times longer. Energy-efficient heat pumps and geyser blankets were also introduced.

In rural areas, small-scale distributed grids powered by solar radiation or geothermal energy could supply enough energy to meet the needs of a town or village and provide ample energy for local hospitals and clinics.

Hospitals utilise an enormous amount of water; rainwater harvesting could be instituted, as hospitals have huge roof surface areas – ideal for rainwater collection. However, very little renewable energy projects in hospitals located in rural areas have being recorded, and investment possibilities within these areas remain huge.

Hospitals and clinics are continually challenged to reduce operating costs and to improve patient care and comfort; healthcare energy costs are high, and can be significantly reduced through improved energy management without significant capital investments. But much work remains in encouraging debate at policy level, and engaging big business and other stakeholders in exploring new technologies and solutions.

The government cannot achieve renewable energy projects alone, and this is where the private sector can play an important role in energy distribution. With more investment opportunities in the solar energy industry being explored by private investors and the public sector during the Solar Energy Africa Conference in Johannesburg in September 2011, hopefully investors will identify new projects to saturate the energy needs of hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Rizel Delano