The new cogeneration plant being constructed on top of the Babcock Building between 114th and 115th Streets.
Mount Sinai St. Luke’s is “going green” by upgrading the hospital’s energy infrastructure and improving the building’s carbon footprint. The hospital will soon generate much of its own electricity once the installation of a cogeneration system is complete, using energy more efficiently and reducing emissions of carbon dioxide.
The $65 million cogeneration system will also include new emergency generators and the replacement of cooling towers and boilers. These upgrades ensure the hospital will always have reliable emergency power sources and consistent steam generation. The project is partially funded by the recent sale of several buildings that were once part of the hospital.
The system will allow St. Luke’s to generate electricity and useable heat at the same time. Instead of excess heat going to waste—as in the case with traditional equipment—the cogeneration system will capture all the heat emitted while generating electricity and use it to warm areas of the hospital as well as the building’s water supply. The plant will use computers to help ensure the equipment operates at maximum efficiency.
“We’re excited to be using cutting-edge technology to produce energy for the hospital,” said Mount Sinai St. Luke’s President Arthur Gianelli, MBA, MPH. “These advancements are at the forefront of sustainable energy efforts, putting St. Luke’s well ahead of other older buildings in the city on the path to efficiency.”
Construction on the system began in May 2017 on the roof of the Babcock Building, on the north side of 114th Street off Amsterdam Avenue, and will continue through the end of the year. When it begins operation in 2018, the system will lower energy costs and is expected to save between $3 million and $4 million per year—about 30-40 percent of St. Luke’s current yearly utility bill.
All buildings on the Mount Sinai St. Luke’s campus are expected to be served from this new plant, including the inpatient hospital (Babcock), the Ambulatory Pavilion (Clark, Service and Research, Stuyvesant, Muhlenberg, and Chapel buildings), as well as the doctors’ offices at 1090 Amsterdam Avenue. Final decisions on the system’s scope and reach will be made in consultation with Con Edison.
Over the last decade, St. Luke’s has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 6.52 percent through the installation of more efficient lighting and by switching the type of fuel oil the current boilers burn. The cogeneration system will make a significant contribution to helping the hospital reduce its carbon footprint. The plant will be approximately 85-90 percent energy efficient, producing 22,053,000 kWh of electricity per year—the equivalent of the energy needed for 2,040 houses.
These efforts to reduce emissions and increase sustainability are part of initiatives at the state, national, and global level to reduce global warming.
For example, the cogeneration project and its intended goals will specifically support efforts in New York. In 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city’s commitment to reduce gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. Mayor de Blasio’s “NYC Carbon Challenge” is part of this effort, and asks private sector organizations like St. Luke’s to pledge their support of this campaign.
The Mount Sinai Health System accepted this challenge in 2009, pledging to voluntarily reduce its building-based emissions by 30 percent or more over the course of 10 years. The Health System and nine other hospital organizations who signed on have collectively achieved a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (per square foot) since 2009.
“It’s important for large health care institutions to affirmatively contribute to reducing their carbon footprint,” Mr. Gianelli said. “We’re proud to be doing this through the installation of our new cogeneration system, and we’re proud to be advancing Mayor de Blasio’s action plan.”
The plant will drastically decrease the hospital’s greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. The plant reduces greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide or CO2) by 15 percent per year—the equivalent output of 100 cars running for 24 hours a day for one year. The system will also reduce several other gases, including nitrogen dioxide (64 percent reduction), sulfur dioxide (91 percent reduction), nitrous dioxide (54 percent reduction), and methane (47 percent reduction).