Renewable Energy Use in Australian Public Hospitals

Abstract Objective Are Australian hospitals moving towards renewable energy sources for their electricity, and aligning energy choices with core business, i.e. protecting and promoting health? Design Cross-sectional analysis of Australian state/territory amalgamated energy data Setting Healthcare’s carbon footprint is approximately 7% of Australia’s total carbon footprint. It is unknown if Australian public hospitals are decoupling energy needs from carbon emissions over and above state/territory based renewable energy targets. Participants 693 Australian public hospitals direct energy usage (renewable & non-renewable electricity [produced/purchased], natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, for the three consecutive years from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Main outcome measures All direct energy produced/purchased and consumed (converted to kilowatt-hours). Results Australian public hospitals consumed 4,122 gigawatt-hours of energy in 2018/19. Electricity use was 2,504 (61%) GWh, natural gas 1,436 (35%) GWh and renewable energy 94 GWh (2.3%). Victoria and New South Wales combined consumed 2,494/ 4,122 GWh (60%) of total Australian public healthcare energy but each produced/purchased less than 1% renewable electricity. For Queensland, a Health GreenPower purchase comprised the majority (71/94 GWh; 76%) of renewable energy production/purchase by all Australian public hospitals. By comparison, individual tertiary education institutions produced/purchased more renewable energy than all Australian public hospitals combined (University of NSW 124 GWh/yr, Swinburne University 90 GWh/yr, 2018/19). Conclusions Australian public hospitals obtain approximately 2.3% of total energy from renewable electricity. One third of hospital energy use stems from fossil gas use. The Australian public hospital system has no documented plans to transition to renewable energy, contrasting with the University sector. The known Australian healthcare contributes approximately 7% of Australia’s total carbon footprint with public hospital energy use a major source of healthcare associated carbon emissions. The new Australian public hospitals consumed 4122 gigawatt-hours in 2018/2019. Approximately 2.3% (94/4,122 gigawatt-hours) of hospital energy was sourced from renewables, beyond state-wide renewable electricity penetration. The implications Australian public hospitals are large emitters of greenhouse gases. Hospital fossil fuel energy use and subsequent pollution continues unabated. Such increasing pollution is at odds with the ethos ‘first do no harm’.