Sustainability in the Healthcare Sector: Nearly Zero-Energy Building Strategies for Hospitals

Hospitals are the most energy-intensive buildings in the tertiary sector because they have continuous and high demand for heating and cooling (to meet strict thermal comfort conditions), hot water, kitchen facilities, electricity, etc. Investigation of the energy performance of hospital buildings is crucial for defining energy savings and developing benchmarks and design guidelines for nearly Zero-Energy Hospitals (nZenHs). This study investigates the energy efficiency of hospital buildings in Greece and the necessary retrofit strategies to transform them to nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs). Six building typologies were recognized, based on the building’s floor plan, and energy upgrade scenarios were investigated for each typology. The first scenarios aimed at improving the building’s energy efficiency, and the last one exploited the use of renewable energy source (RES) systems to minimize energy consumption. More specifically, a rooftop photovoltaic system was examined. The results showed differences in hospitals’ energy performance according to typology and climatic zone. They strongly confirm that hospitals can be transformed into buildings with nearly zero-energy consumption, irrespective of their design. The significant energy savings achieved by transforming hospitals into NZEBs highlight the crucial role in enhancing energy efficiency in tertiary sector buildings.