Tell your state leaders to support healthcare electrification!

America’s first-ever all-electric acute care hospital opened on December 10, 2025, on the premises of the University of California Irvine! The new Irvine Campus Medical Complex (ICMC) is a 144-bed facility next to the San Joaquin Marsh, which will provide a “tranquil” atmosphere for patients. It has nearly 1,000 staff and includes 24/7 emergency care, advanced cancer treatment, and specialties ranging from cardiology to spinal care to orthopedics. It’s 100% powered by clean electricity, from both solar panels atop nearby parking structures and from the California grid’s renewables opt-in program.

This “hospital of the future” was designed by an innovative engineering team who created a completely original central utility plant electric heating system from scratch, balancing heating loads, cooling loads, and air flow to benefit from new efficiencies like recovering energy from hospital operations to power heaters. It also has extensive water recycling systems, plus biodegradable and recyclable materials in furnishings and flooring. ICMC is also more networked than most hospitals, with sound alerts going directly to staff devices instead of resounding through the halls.

An all-electric hospital is just the latest milestone in a national and global trend of equipping key healthcare infrastructure with resilient and reliable renewables. Texas recently authorized $1.8 billion in state “matching” funding to help build out microgrids for critical facilities like hospitals and emergency services to stay online during disasters and power outages. That funding is technology-neutral, but the superior economics of solar and battery power (now booming in Texas) clearly incentivize clean energy!

We’re increasingly seeing that we can run all the core functions of a fast-advancing human civilization with zero greenhouse gas emissions — and build more functional and resilient infrastructure in the process. More U.S. states should adopt these sensible policy ideas and support all-electric new buildings while incentivizing clean microgrids for life-saving critical facilities.

Tell your state leaders to support healthcare electrification!