An Israeli green energy firm has agreed to provide a Holon-based hospital with electric process heat, replacing its current natural gas-fueled steam boilers. The transition is projected to reduce the hospital’s carbon emissions by 3,900 tons annually and save it $1.3 million yearly in energy costs.
The Finance Ministry approved the seven-year, $3.55 million project for Wolfson Hospital, which was first announced in August last year. The facility will purchase a Brenmiller bGen ZERO thermal energy storage (TES) system, which utilizes crushed rocks to store energy in the form of heat and dispatches low-cost steam, hot water, or hot air on demand.The system will replace Wolfson’s outdated diesel boilers, which are both costly and polluting.
“The project is expected to reduce our fuel oil consumption to nearly zero,” said Gadi Davidovitz, chief engineer at Wolfson Hospital. “It will significantly reduce emissions generated by the hospital while saving on energy costs.”Some $450,000 of the budget will be covered by a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority.
System turns electricity into heat to compete with natural gas
“With our breakthrough bGen ZERO technology, we will provide Wolfson Hospital with a cleaner source of electricity at a lower price than its legacy systems,” said Brenmiller’s Chairman and CEO Avi Brenmiller. “Our sustainable power infrastructure will benefit all hospital stakeholders, from patients and doctors to administrators, government, and local communities.”The Brenmiller system converts electricity into heat to power sustainable industrial processes at a competitive price with natural gas. The company’s bGen was named among TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 in the Green Energy category.Brenmiller said that he hopes that the installation is only the beginning of wide-scale TES adoption in Israel and that it could become the standard for clean energy storage for industrial and municipal facilities in the country and worldwide.