article · Energy Reports
Moroccan public hospitals consume approximately 10 megawatt-hours per functional bed each year, translating to an estimated national hospital demand of about 236 gigawatt-hours annually. Critical zones present particularly intense demands. A dynamic simulation of an operating-theatre block comprising ten suites in an eastern Moroccan university hospital shows that while the block occupies under 1% of the total floor space, it accounts for 5.12% of the facility electricity consumption due to continuous operation, ventilation, and strict hygiene requirements. Implementing a solar photovoltaic and battery storage arrangement dedicated to this critical branch reduces annual grid electricity imports from 343.13 to 214.57 megawatt-hours, achieving a 37.47% reduction. Broader decentralized energy strategies incorporating photovoltaic self-consumption, battery storage, polygeneration, and medical waste-to-energy pathways could further decarbonise hospital operations when backed by energy service company financing and targeted policy measures.
Hospitals require uninterrupted, high-quality power to run critical facilities such as operating theatres, yet their continuous ventilation and environmental controls lead to heavy energy consumption. Demonstrating that onsite solar and battery storage can cut grid dependence for vital hospital units provides healthcare administrators and policymakers with a clear route to improve resilience, control running costs, and lower public sector carbon emissions.
This work informs energy service companies, hospital facilities managers, and renewable technology installers seeking to design decentralized microgrids for critical healthcare loads. The findings are based on dynamic simulations and institutional records rather than live hardware deployment, placing the research at an applied modelling stage. Commercial exploitation would depend on energy service company contracting models, specialized hospital microgrid engineering, and policy mechanisms tailored to healthcare infrastructure in semi-arid regions.
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This study investigates the integration of Distributed Energy Systems (DES) in Moroccan hospitals by analysing energy consumption patterns, identifying implementation barriers, and assessing decentralized energy options for critical clinical loads. Based on harmonized institutional energy records and a bed-weighted extrapolation, Moroccan public hospitals are estimated to consume on the order of 10 MWh per functional bed annually, corresponding to an approximate national hospital energy demand of about 236 GWh per year. A focused dynamic case study is then developed using TRNSYS for an operating-theatre block comprising ten operating theatres in a Moroccan university hospital located in a cold semi-arid eastern Moroccan climatic context. The annual simulation shows high zone-level energy intensities driven by continuous operation, ventilation needs and strict hygienic constraints. Although the operating-theatre block represents less than 1% of the total hospital floor area, its electrical-equivalent demand corresponds to 5.12% of annual hospital electricity use. To move beyond demand characterization, a hospital-scale photovoltaic self-consumption assessment is coupled with a TRNSYS-based PV–battery scenario allocated to the retained operating-theatre-equivalent branch. At branch level, annual grid import decreases from 343.13 to 214.57 MWh, corresponding to a saving of 128.56 MWh/year and a 37.47% reduction relative to the baseline. Drawing on Morocco’s energy transition objectives and renewable resource potential, the study supports targeted DES deployment combining photovoltaic self-consumption, storage, polygeneration and medical waste-to-energy pathways, supported by ESCO-based financing and hospital-specific policy instruments.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.egyr.2026.109640
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