Thanks to the hospital's thermal power plant, energy costs decreased by 98 percent. “What's unique is that we do four energies at once

The hospital in Gorzów boasts about its CHP plant. – What is exceptional is that we produce four energies at once, i.e. electricity, heat energy in steam, heat energy in hot water and we also give this heat energy to chilled water – says Piotr Michałowski, chief engineer of the Multi-Specialist Provincial Hospital in Gorzów Wielkopolski.

They produce the so-called chilled water primarily from what they have in abundance in the hospital: medical waste. They don't take anything out of the hospital, everything is safely burned for the environment.

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The heart of this unique hospital CHP plant is a gas engine that produces electricity for the entire hospital, and because it heats itself, it also heats the hospital. Thanks to this, energy costs have fallen by 98 percent. The multi-million investment paid off in less than a year. – We pay for heat with the gas that the engine takes, and the electricity is free – explains Piotr Michałowski.

Electricity for free. This sounds good in a large hospital which, before it broke even financially, was one of the most indebted medical facilities in Poland. Most hospitals in Poland have a constant problem with rising energy costs.

Employee salaries plus energy costs practically eat up the entire hospital budget. – This is exactly how it is, that's why hospitals have debts and deficits, and that's why they are financially inefficient, and above all because the valuation of services does not match the costs – comments the president of the board of the District Hospital in Aleksandrów Kujawski.

There is no choice: in the coming years, hospitals will have to switch to renewable energy sources.

– When renewable energy sources, of which there are more and more in the network, produce a lot, i.e. when the wind blows and the sun shines, electricity will be very cheap and this is the moment when hospitals should buy electricity. First of all, they should charge electricity batteries, but also heat batteries – says Kamil Kwiatkowski, a physicist and expert in research projects on renewable energy sources.

Soon, next to hospital warehouses with medical equipment, hospital energy storage facilities will also be built. This way, maybe we will see cheaper electricity from nuclear power plants.

– Nuclear power will be here in 10-12 years. Then we have to pay off the loan for this nuclear power, which means that energy in Poland will be at the same level as it is for at least 15 years, so this is a future for 15 years, when it comes to the gas engine – assesses Piotr Michałowski.

Provided that the natural gas used now will be converted into biogas refined to methane in a few years in Gorzów, and not only there.