Concord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announces the largest solar hot water system in the State has been installed at New Hampshire Hospital (NHH). Fifty-nine collectors are in place on the hospital's roof. The entire system, which also includes three 800 gallon tanks and an energy monitoring system, was funded through a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) State Energy Program.

"It's expected this will provide half of NHH's hot water load over the course of a year and on peak solar days it will generate more than half of the hospital's hot water," stated NHH Director of Maintenance, Engineering, and Transportation Don Ficken. "This is New Hampshire Hospital's latest effort to be more environmentally friendly and save taxpayer dollars. It is a positive initiative all the way around."

This was one of several energy improvement projects in NH funded under the ARRA grant. "Each project proposed was evaluated based on a number of criteria, including cost-benefit, visibility, replicability, and energy offset," stated Mary Downes of the NH Office of Energy and Planning. "This solar hot water project was the most cost-effective solar project proposed."

The hot water system will produce over 450,000 kBTU of energy annually which amounts to about 3,400 gallons of oil saved (that is enough hot water to supply 30 homes in Concord). The CO2 savings each year of over 75,000 pounds is equivalent to: not driving an average car 120,000 miles; heating 6 homes all winter in Concord; and planting 188 trees in a year.

Meridian Construction managed the energy improvements and ReKnew Energy Systems of White River Junction, Vermont installed the solar hot water system.