Boston-based Partners HealthCare signed a deal with a New Hampshire wind farm to help the health system achieve it's goal of receiving 100 percent of its power from non-carbon sources by 2025, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Under the 20-year contract, Partners will buy 75 percent of the wind energy produced by Antrim Wind Energy. Officials said the deal will save the health system an undisclosed amount of money over the 20-year period.
Partners currently gets 22 percent of its energy from renewable sources, including 4.5 percent from four solar projects on top of various Partners facilities, according to the report. Another 48 percent of the health system's energy comes from non-carbon sources, like nuclear and hydro energy.
The deal follows the similar efforts of other Boston-based health systems. Boston Medical Center signed a deal with the Cambridge-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology to buy 100 percent of its power from a 650-acre solar farm in August 2016.
"Part of the reason we're doing this is because it's a good financial investment. The other is for reasons of public health. Its increasingly evident, and supported by research, that environmental factors contribute to chronic disease and amplify chronic disease patients have, like emphysema and asthma and cardiac conditions," said John Messervy, corporate director of design and construction for Partners HealthCare. "We think it's the right position as a healthcare provider to be removing ourselves from participating in activities that contribute to the medical conditions of the patients we serve."