ENERGY-GUZZLING hospitals are going green in a bid to ease their impact on the environment.
As concern about the impact of climate change increases, new measures are being taken to ensure existing Welsh hospitals are more energy-efficient and conscious.
The two new hospitals currently being built, one in North Wales and the other in the South, will feature more environmentally- friendly heating methods.
And there are even controversial proposals, currently under discussion, for hospitals to generate their own power using wind turbines.
The move to make Wales' 90-plus hospitals more environmentally friendly complements the Welsh Assembly Government's policy on sustainability, which saw its new home the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, constructed with a giant wind cowl, to draw warm air out of the building.
The 57 largest hospitals in Wales - which include Morriston Hospital, in Swansea, University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff and the Royal Gwent, in Newport - have been supplied with 100% green electricity since last April, when a new supply contract was negotiated.
These 57 sites account for 89% of the electricity consumed by the NHS Wales. The smaller hospital sites, which have not yet made the switch over, will be addressed as their electrical supply contracts are renewed.
Keith Jones, estate control assurance officer for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, said, "Green electricity is primarily electricity which has been generated from non-fossil fuel sources, such as wind, water and tidal power - sources which don't use carbon.
"We have targets for reducing carbon emissions to meet and using green electricity, getting rid of the fossil fuel element, is one way to do that.
"It does work, but as with a lot of these new technologies they are expensive, although there is a long-term payback of about 20 years."
Another energy-efficient and "green" measure about to come into use in Welsh hospitals is the installation of wood-burning boilers, instead of gas boilers.
It is planned that the two new hospitals currently being built in Wales - Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda and Ysbyty Alltwen, in north Merioneth - will include wood-burning boilers for the provision of heating and hot water.
This has been made possible with the use of grants from the Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS) for the provision of these central wood-burning units.
Marc Howell, business development manager for Cowbridge-based Wood Energy, which is supplying the new wood-burning boilers, said, "These boilers are considered to be carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide released during burning has already been absorbed by the trees over their life time.
"The Government is now recognising this in the battle against global warming and grants are available for buying wood burning boilers.
"They are probably two to three times more expensive to install, because they are hand-made, but they are something like a third to half the price of running a gas boiler - there are considerable cost savings to be made, as well as the carbon savings."
This trend for energy efficiency and using renewable sources to power the nation's hospitals is set to continue as Welsh Health Estates has formed a renewable energy group to examine how renewable energy can be utilised in the NHS in Wales.
The group includes representatives from the Welsh Assembly Government, Welsh Health Estates (WHE), the Organisations for the Promotion of Energy Technologies, the Carbon Trust Wales and the Welsh Health Environmental Forum, on behalf of NHS Trusts.
WHE, in partnership with the Carbon Trust, has commissioned a study into the feasibility of wind power generation at hospitals in Wales and is now intending to conduct in-depth assessments at those sites identified as being potentially most suitable.
The Carbon Trust confirmed the study was under way but refused to comment.