Empire Building Challenge: Hospitals Project Awardees

To date, NYSERDA’s Empire Building Challenge: Hospitals program has awarded over $28 million to deploy innovative decarbonization solutions across New York State hospitals. The awarded projects will accelerate real-world adoption of energy efficiency and electrification upgrades by demonstrating repeatable models for reducing carbon emissions in New York’s existing hospital facilities.

Northwell Health: Katz Women’s Hospital

The hospital is receiving $4,256,301 to install a heat recovery chiller, convert steam distribution to low-temperature hot water (LTHW[D(1.1]), balance the facility ventilation system, and install an exhaust air heat recovery system. This project addresses one of the hospital’s largest remaining sources of on-site fossil fuel use: steam heating. By recovering heat from existing systems, optimizing airflow, and replacing steam heating with recovered hot water, the project will improve efficiency while working within existing grid capacity restraints present on the campus. When fully implemented, the project is expected to save over 1,600 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 30,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.

Northwell Health: Phelps Memorial Hospital

This hospital is receiving $5,000,000 to install a heat recovery chiller/heat pumps, and a thermal storage system, as well as convert steam distribution to low-temperature hot water (LTHW). This project aims to modernize the facility’s thermal energy supply system by reducing dependence on fossil fuel generated steam. A new heat recovery chiller/heat pump[D(3.1] will extract heat from a chilled water return to produce beneficial cold water, while heat is rejected into a new low-temperature heating hot water loop to supplement the facility's space heating loads. When fully implemented, the project is expected to save over 1,000 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 29,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.

Geneva General Hospital

This hospital is receiving $3,530,000 to install a new high efficiency cooling plant, update the central building management system), replace two aging air handling units with higher efficiency models, and upgrade a chiller plant by adding a heat recovery chiller. The project’s goal is to improve system resilience while reducing the effected facilities’ carbon footprint by updating aging infrastructure. Through these upgrades, the hospital will provide simultaneous heating and cooling demands to patients, improve operational efficiency and implement fault detection, as provide reliability upgrades to the existing systems. When fully implemented, the project is expected to save over 2,300 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 40,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.

St. Barnabas Hospital

This hospital is receiving $5,000,000 to electrify fossil fuel loads through the replacement of an existing steam chiller plant with an electric chiller plant. The new all-electric system will operate at 6-8 times the efficiency of the existing cooling system, reducing fossil fuel reliance and expanding cooling capacity for future load flexibility. When fully implemented, the project is expected to save over 2,200 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 53,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.

NYC Health + Hospitals: Elmhurst Hospital Center

This hospital is receiving $5,000,000 to install new heat pump chillers, modernize pneumatic controls, and upgrade the central building management system (BMS). The new heat pump chillers will maximize use of free cooling and optimized chilled water distribution to reduce compressor and boiler run time, thereby cutting gas and/or steam usage for heating and electricity consumption for cooling. The upgrades to pneumatic controls and central BMS will improve operational stability and enable precise demand-based operation to minimize overproduction and avoid wasted energy derived from fossil fuels. When fully implemented, this project is expected to save over 3,200 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 33,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.

Montefiore: Wakefield Hospital, Jack D. Weiler Hospital, and Westchester Square Hospital

These hospitals are receiving $4,881,523.74 to electrify hospital heating with the installation of heat recovery heat pumps. This project includes three campuses that will receive the new installations, all developed to tie into existing hot water and chilled water systems and offset fossil fuel usage by taking advantage of simultaneous heating and cooling loads driven by facility operations. When fully implemented, the project is expected to save over 1,100 tons of carbon equivalent emissions and over 24,000 MMBtu from their baseline energy use year over year.