News Times Live Hospital looks at clean energy
Solar panels slated to be replaced atop Danbury building
By Robert Miller
THE NEWS-TIMES
DANBURY -- The water-heating solar panels that sit on top of Danbury Hospital -- put there about 30 years ago, and out of commission for at least half that time -- will be replaced with new ones that will generate electricity.
The new photovoltaic panels -- as well as a planned gas-fired turbine generator on the hospital grounds -- will reduce the hospital's dependence on electricity and will use less-polluting technologies.
Mark Mininberg, president of Hospital Energy Services, which works with hospitals to expand their use of clean energy, said Danbury Hospital is the only one in the state that is planning such a solar array.
Photovoltaic cells can convert sunlight directly to electricity. The new panels could be in place in 2008 or 2009 and will save the hospital money.
"When you buy electricity, you pay for the cost of generating the electricity,'' said Morris Gross, vice president of Danbury Health Systems, the for-profit corporation that owns the nonprofit hospital, said last week.
"But you also pay the cost of transmitting the electricity across wires. And you pay for the cost of distributing the electricity to a particular place. So if you can generate at least some of that electricity yourself, you save on the transmission and distribution costs."
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