U.S. Department of Energy Awards Major Grant to Bolster Valley Children's Renewable Energy Microgrid

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Oct 06, 2023, 11:00 ET

Project will help Hospital provide uninterrupted care and improve sustainability

MADERA, Calif., Oct. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Valley Children's Healthcare launched a bold plan earlier this year to design, build and implement a clean energy strategy that would ensure - above all else - that patient care is never interrupted due to power outages, electrical grid failures or other events that would limit our ability to provide care to the children who depend on it. The plan will also reduce costs, and help clean up the air in one of America's most polluted counties.

This week, the project got even better.

Rendering of Valley Children's solar field, designed in the shape of the hospital's mascot, George the Giraffe. (Madera, California)

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that Valley Children's, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and Faraday Microgrids are the recipients of a long-duration energy storage demonstrations grant to accelerate and expand the healthcare network's clean energy storage capabilities. This ground-breaking microgrid at Valley Children's is one of just 15 projects chosen as part of the DOE's $325 million commitment to fund similar projects nationwide that promote adoption of renewable energy resources and advance critical clean air technologies.

"At the heart of Valley Children's sustainability plan is our kids. Valley Children's must ensure we always have a source of energy to care for them and their families under any circumstance or through any disruption – and we have a responsibility to improve the communities where our children live, learn and play," says Valley Children's President and CEO Todd Suntrapak. "The Department of Energy grant represents a transformative moment for Valley Children's and for our communities, and places us at the forefront of creating safe, effective and reliable power systems for hospitals here and around the world."

Valley Children's project, to be engineered by Mazzetti and built by renewable microgrid developer, Faraday Microgrids, is expected to receive $30 million from the DOE and an additional $25 million from the CEC. At the project's completion, Valley Children's is projected to operate the largest renewable energy microgrid in the country, connected to a hospital emergency system.

"The mission of Valley Children's is to provide high quality healthcare and to continuously improve the health and well-being of kids, and there are few roles more important in community improvement than to contribute the environment in which our children live - not just today but in generations from now," says Valley Children's Senior VP and Chief Community Impact Officer Lynne Ashbeck. "This grant will allow us to engage our communities around issues involving the impacts of climate change, sustainability and the environment."

"The expansion of Valley Children's existing microgrid plans represents a remarkable leap forward in terms of providing safe, effective and reliable clean power systems to healthcare networks," says Dr. David Bliss, pediatric surgeon and CEO of Faraday Microgrids. "We are proud to partner with Valley Children's, whose leaders had the vision to recognize what is needed not only today, but in the future, and with the State of California, working in service of the communities that rely on Valley Children's to take care of kids – no matter what."

Over the next several months, the DOE, CEC, Faraday Microgrids and Valley Children's will finalize the terms of the grant.

Meanwhile, work continues on phase 1 of Valley Children's renewable energy microgrid. When online and operational in 2025, the renewable energy microgrid will reduce reliance on the traditional power grid, ensuring Valley Children's Hospital and buildings on its campus remain operational in the event of power outages in the region. It will also cut carbon emissions by more than 50%.

Valley Children's, one of the first hospitals to sign the White House-HHS Health Sector Climate Pledge, has also committed to achieving net zero by the year 2050, meaning the entire campus will produce no carbon emissions, entirely eliminating its carbon footprint and any negative impact on air quality.

For more information about the DOE grant, click here. To see a rendering of the solar field – designed in the shape of Valley Children's Mascot, George the Giraffe – and to learn more about Valley Children's commitment to improving air quality and building energy resilience, visit valleychildrens.org/sustainability.

About Valley Children's Healthcare

Valley Children's Healthcare provides Central California's only high-quality, comprehensive care exclusively for children, from before birth to young adulthood. Our network offers highly specialized medical and surgical services to care for children with conditions ranging from common to the highly complex at its 358-bed stand-alone children's hospital that includes 28 regional NICU beds. In addition, the Valley Children's Healthcare network includes specialty care centers, pediatric primary care practices and women's health services.

Our family-centered, pediatric services extend from a leading pediatric cancer and blood diseases center on the West Coast, and a pediatric heart center known for its expertise and pioneering treatments, to a Regional Level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the highest-level referral center between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Valley Children's was the first children's hospital west of the Rockies to receive Magnet Nursing designation, the highest nursing benchmark in the world. In 2023, U.S. News and World Report again named Valley Children's one of the best children's hospitals in the country in seven pediatric specialties. With more than 670 physicians and 3,500 staff, Valley Children's delivers high-quality, comprehensive care to more than 1.3 million children from Kern County to the state capital and from the Central Coast to the Sierra. For more information, please visit www.valleychildrens.org.

SOURCE Valley Children's Healthcare