A plan to make a major hospital’s campus more energy efficient is making progress.
Jacobi Medical Center began installing new combined wind and solar street lamps in March and April that are completely off the traditional energy grid as part an $11 million energy efficiency program currently underway at the sprawling medical center campus.
“These energy enhancements allow NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi to contribute to the city’s OneNYC goal of reducing our carbon emissions and helping to confront the climate crisis,” said Christopher Mastromano, Jacobi Medical Center CEO.
OneNYC 2050 is a citywide effort to reduce carbon emissions and make the city a leader in confronting climate change.
The nifty outdoor lights will number 22 when the installation is completed, and each have wind turbines and photovoltaic solar panels on light posts.
As explained in a previous Bronx Times article, whether it is windy or a sunny day, energy can be collected and stored in batteries located inside of each individual unit.
They replace 36 less efficient street lamps along the campus sidewalks and roadways, said Jacobi spokesman John Doyle.
Doyle said that the exterior lamps are only the beginning, and that part of what will follow will be a replacement of older light fixtures with modern LED lights inside of hospital buildings.
Some of those fixtures are more than 50 years old in certain sections of the hospital, said Doyle.
The entire $11 million energy program is a two-phase endeavor expected to last through mid 2020.
The larger project includes upgrades to the medical center’s chiller plant (for air conditioning and cold air), vastly improved interior lighting that is expected to reduce energy usage by up to two-thirds, replacement or repair of three air handling units to make them more energy efficient, as well as new controls inside of buildings.
