On 16-17 October 2024, the partners of the DAPHNE project (Decarbonising healthcare in EU regions) met in Malmö to discuss the progress of the project activities and plan the next steps. The meeting was attended by representatives from ten partner organisations from Sweden, Italy, Romania, Greece, Poland, Belgium, Ireland, Ukraine and Serbia. This time the event was hosted by the Swedish organisation NCSH (Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare), which is advisory partner in the project.
The first day of the meeting started with a session on breakthrough technologies on energy efficiency in the healthcare sector. Johannes Brundin from NCSH presented Nordic Know-how, an overview of good examples and best practices in the area of sustainable healthcare in the Nordic countries, detailed in a series of published reports. During the meeting, he presented participants some of the good practices in lighting, ventilation and the use of geothermal energy.
Then Klas Berglöf, a representative from ClimaCheck company, discussed the various options for performance analysis and monitoring of energy systems. The use of energy optimalisation solutions for heat pumps and air-conditioning and refrigeration systems can decrease energy consumption by 10-30%, while also contributing to increased plant reliability, reduced equipment use and lower operating costs. Moreover, continuous monitoring and performance analysis of HVACR systems (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) enables the detection of individual components efficiency loss. This allows the implementation of preventive measures to improve overall energy efficiency.
The final presentation in this part of the meeting was delivered by Jonas Lundh from Medclair, research and development company, focusing on the climate impact of anaesthetic gases and potential policy directions for the healthcare sector. Nitrous oxide, widely used in medicine for its analgesic, anaesthetic, and sedative properties, is also a powerful greenhouse gas, the third most important after carbon dioxide and methane. Its uncontrolled release into the atmosphere poses a significant environmental threat, highlighting the need for effective measures to reduce emissions. According to the speaker, hospitals should oblige their suppliers to provide real-time data on the performance of systems and their environmental impact. The next step should be to establish policy requirements for continuous monitoring and reporting, providing transparency on system performance and energy consumption.
This introduction was followed by a presentation of the NCSH model, a tool that aims to strengthen the healthcare sector through practical sustainability solutions. The model enables healthcare facilities to use resources more efficiently and reduce their environmental impact, while maintaining high quality patient care and a conducive working environment for staff. In addition, the NCSH model offers hospitals and healthcare facilities the opportunity to take best practices in sustainable healthcare and adapt them to their own needs and conditions. The NCSH model is still under development and is based on identifying a starting point (a baseline) and then comparing it with a reference, which is best available practice, so that further actions can be identified.
At the end of the day, there was a session held on decarbonisation roadmaps, when partners from Belgium and Ireland presented their activities carried out so far. In Belgium, with the support of Health Care Without Harm Europe and ARUP, a working group on low-carbon and sustainable health care has been created to coherently define priorities at each administrative level of the country. The Belgian roadmap model involves establishing the emission baseline and setting a decarbonisation target, followed by the development of scenarios based on which an action plan will be created for the healthcare sector to achieve net-zero emissions. In Ireland, the Pathfinder program is being implemented with the goal of developing a path for deep decarbonisation of existing healthcare facilities. This program focuses on analysing various technical and financial solutions for the deep renovation of medical facilities. Pathfinder aims to use the best practices gathered during the first phase of the program in ten pilot sites and develop a strategy to accelerate the comprehensive renovation of an additional 24 facilities.
On the second day of the meeting, during a session dedicated to the exchange of experiences, the partners discussed the progress made so far in the project. The most frequently mentioned topics included data collection and organising meetings with stakeholders. The goal of sharing experiences was to develop a common active strategy for addressing identified challenges and setting priorities, along with concrete action plans for the next phase of the project.
In the afternoon, the entire group visited Brunnshög, a newly developed part of the University City of Lund, which consists of commercial and residential buildings, and also hosts a Research Center. During the visit, participants had the opportunity to learn more about the intelligent, low-temperature heating system ectogrid™ by E.ON, which connects 15 commercial properties and residential buildings in Medicon Village with various heating and cooling needs. The system enables the efficient management of heating and cooling energy in buildings and industrial areas and works by exchanging thermal energy between different buildings through a common network. This enables the optimal use of energy surpluses in one location while meeting the demand in another. The technology uses the mechanism of known cooling equipment, heat pumps and electrical and district heating networks, but combines them in an innovative way and uses them efficiently in an urban network. The system is particularly effective in locations where there are variable heating and cooling demands at different times of the day and year. With the ectogrid™ it is not only possible to save energy, but also to reduce CO₂ emissions and operating costs, making it a future-proof energy and building management solution.
In Poland, the ectogrid™ system has been implemented at the Łasztownia in Szczecin in the country's first 5th generation district heating network, which enables the simultaneous supply of both heat and cooling. This system uses low-temperature infrastructure to recover and reuse waste heat and renewable energy, contributing to emission reduction and improved energy efficiency. The system provides cooling in summer and low-temperature heating in winter, meeting the energy needs of buildings in an environmentally friendly and innovative way. The first facility connected to this grid is the Maritime Science Centre. The use of the ectogrid™ system supports decarbonisation and is an important step towards sustainable energy development in the region.
The second interregional meeting of the DAPHNE project in Malmö was an excellent opportunity to share experiences and discuss efforts to decarbonise the healthcare sector in Europe. In addition, the study visit to Lund allowed to see in practice the operation of the ectogrid™ system, which effectively combines the heating and cooling needs of buildings, maximising the use of surplus energy and reducing emissions.
The project is co-funded by the EU Interreg Europe program. The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the DAPHNE project and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.
