Gundersen campus on the cusp of sustainable, energy-independent health care

ONALASKA – Hospitals operate amid constant uncertainties – ever prepared for ambulance bay doors to present new patients at any moment. 

Gundersen Health System’s Onalaska campus, Alan Eber said, will no longer have to concern itself over one vital variable: electricity. 

Thanks to a new partnership with national energy provider Xcel Energy, Eber said Gundersen’s Onalaska campus will be fully powered by its own “microgrid” by summer 2025. 

The microgrid, he said, will absolve the campus from relying on the broader electrical grid – and will be powered entirely by renewable resources already employed by the campus.

Eber is the director of Envision, which he said he calls “the sustainability and energy arm of the Bellin and Gundersen Health System.”

“(Envision) was formed as Gundersen was on its journey to energy independence,” he said. “We started that journey in 2008 and hit our first day of energy independence in 2014 – which means we generated more power using clean, renewable energy than we used off the utilities.” 

Eber said that initial run of energy independence lasted “months (as) the system grew faster than we could keep up” – as Envision continued its pursuit...