Bon Secours Mercy Health invested in a heating and cooling system at the cancer center on the Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital campus in Paducah, Kentucky, that makes use of geothermal energy, which is renewable and clean.
By tapping federal incentives, Bon Secours Mercy Health expects to save somewhere north of 40% on the cost of installing a geothermal system at the new cancer center on the Mercy Health — Lourdes Hospital campus in Paducah, Kentucky.
Speier
Chris Speier, system director of infrastructure, said Bon Secours Mercy estimates its federal rebate on the heating and cooling system at the cancer center will total about $900,000. The center opened this summer. Its overall cost was $14.4 million.
The incentives, which Bon Secours Mercy is still in the process of accessing, are from programs within the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. In addition to 30% base incentive for the climate-friendly geothermal system, Bon Secours Mercy will be able to tap rebates that will exceed 10% of the project's cost because of the project's location and the use of American-made products.
Speier said the geothermal system came with benefits beyond federal incentives. Among the others are that the system is addressing climate change by making use of a sustainable energy source while reducing the building's utility costs.
The geothermal system has several miles of piping and 36 wells that go 400 feet deep. It makes use of the steady underground temperature for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.
The Department of Energy cites numerous benefits related to geothermal energy. Among those benefits is that it can be extracted without burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas or oil and that it's renewable.
Speier described the geothermal system at Lourdes Hospital as a premium, state-of-the-art one. It is expected to last years longer than other systems that Bon Secours Mercy could have installed.
"As a ministry, we are very, very lean and cost effective, as it is," Speier said. "We could have built it a little bit cheaper, but long term, operating it provides some advantages at the end of the day. Being good stewards of the resources — natural resources and energy — it's the right thing to do in that community."
Speier said the cancer center was much needed in Paducah. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that for 2022, Kentucky had the nation's second-highest cancer mortality rate.
The 19,400-square-foot cancer center has 22 infusion bays of which five are private, 21 exam rooms, a lab that supports all of the center's services and a pharmacy.
In September, Lourdes Hospital got state approval to add a facility for radiation cancer treatment.
The system has two other projects in early stages that it also expects will qualify for IRA credits. One is a solar project at Mercy Health — Springfield Regional Medical Center in Ohio and the other a geothermal system in Virginia.
Speier said that because the IRA credits are relatively new, Bon Secours Mercy has engaged experts in various areas — including tax and design — and sought the advice of consultants to read and interpret the law. He said that built a consensus on what the system needed to do to meet the terms to qualify for tax credits.
"I think one of the biggest things that we did that helped was that multidisciplinary approach," he said.
He encouraged any other systems thinking of making use of the same incentives to take a similar team approach to reviewing the terms. "Don't be too proud to think there's not others that can help you interpret them better," Speier said. "We did a good job of engaging some consultants, either at no cost, or very low cost, because everybody wanted to figure it out."