The largest hospital-based healthcare research group in the United States contracted Boston-based developer RENEW Energy Partners to deploy a new and upgraded distributed energy system directly powering and decarbonizing its top rehabilitation and treatment facility in the same city.
Non-profit Mass General Brigham and RENEW Energy Partners collaborated to deliver a thermal energy upgrade for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston in the past year. The project required no upfront investment from Mass General Brigham—thus offering a variation of the “energy as a service” model in which the developer owns, operates and maintains the distributed energy system through a long-term power purchase agreement with the customer.
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Mass General Brigham was founded through the combination of two historic healthcare facilities, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The entire system treats about 2.5 million patients annually, while allocating about $2 billion toward medical research funding.
The distributed energy and efficiency upgrades by RENEW will allow the healthcare entity to preserve its capital to focus on new patient initiatives while saving energy costs compared with past systems.
“By reducing our operating costs with an energy-efficient upgrade and asset management services from RENEW, we can continue focusing on delivering the highest standards of patient care,” said Jason D’Antona, director of engineering & utilities, Real Estate & Facilities at Mass General Brigham, in a statement. “RENEW’s initial engineering combined with its continued asset management provides the expertise, creativity, and flexibility we needed to ensure reliable power and optimized costs—helping us free up capital and invest in sustainable solutions that support our long-term goals.”
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, built on land adjacent to the former Charleston Navy Yard in Boston’s Inner Harbor, is a 132-bed teaching hospital and opened in 2013.
RENEW Energy Partners did not detail the power generation particulars of the distributed energy system at Spaulding—the company has used multiple distributed energy resources in past projects—but predicted the upgrade will increase efficiency by about 10%. Renew says its system will maximize usable thermal output to more than meet building load requirements.
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“Our work with Mass General Brigham demonstrates how customized energy solutions can unlock capital, enhance system reliability and directly support a client’s long-term sustainability vision,” said Charlie Lord, Managing Principal at RENEW Energy Partners. “It’s been a privilege to collaborate with an organization so deeply committed to both patient care and environmental responsibility. We look forward to continuing our long-term partnership as MGB scales its clean energy initiatives.”
Renew Energy Partners’ financial backing includes investment from major clean energy backers such as Mitsubishi HC Capital America and Greenbacker Capital. Among its recent projects include the MACOM microgrid in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Isla Frio cold storage efficiency project in Puerto Rico.
Earlier this year, RENEW Energy Partners announced it was joining with on-site power developer Kinsley Energy Systems to deploy battery energy storage systems across $100 million worth of projects in the northeastern U.S. The partnerships focus on distributed energy systems installed on-site for commercial and industrial customers.
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