Gundersen, Xcel Energy work together on sustainable energy system for Onalaska clinic

The Gundersen medical campus in Onalaska will soon be the home of a pioneering project involving healthcare and sustainable energy.

Gundersen is teaming up with Xcel Energy to create a renewable microgrid for the clinic facility near Highway 16.

Emplify Health regional president Heather Schimmers welcomed guests to a groundbreaking near the Onalaska clinic on Tuesday, saying the energy project in there will make history.

“With our friends at Xcel Energy, and using the amazing sustainable infrastructure already found on this campus, we are ready to create one of the first 100 per cent resilient and renewable energy health care campuses in the United States,” Schimmers said.

Brian Elwood with Xcel described how the microgrid will work for the clinic.

“What the microgrid will allow this campus to do is operate independently from the grid,” Elwood told reporters. “It’ll have controls in place, so if there’s evet a situation where they need to operate independently, they’ll have the controls, the tools, the generation, the resources to do that.”

The power system is designed to provide sustainable energy in case of power outages in the Onalaska area. Gundersen has been generating its own energy for several years, and said it routinely produces more energy than it uses.

The microgrid is being developed to provide power independently from the general Xcel system. It should be completed within two years.