Last week in California, UC Irvine opened the nation’s first all-electric hospital, part of an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the medical sector. This week on Possibly we talked to someone who helped build it.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Imagine a hospital that only runs on clean electricity. Well, the first one in the US just opened in Irvine, California.

We had Hamid Torabzadeh and Emma Mejia from our Possibly Team look into this new hospital.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hi, Megan!

Emma Mejia: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, why do we want an all-electric hospital?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hospitals use a ton of energy – a lot more than other buildings like them.

Emma Mejia: Health care buildings only make up about 4% of all of the commercial floorspace in the US, but they use more than 9% of the energy.

Hamid Torabzadeh: That might sound small, but the same amount of energy could power 20 million US homes.

Megan Hall: Wow, that is a lot of energy!

Emma Mejia: It absolutely is. And hospitals, where patients stay overnight and receive 24/7 care, use the most.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Just think about it – hospitals need to power operating rooms, life-saving machines, infection-control air flows, lighting, kitchens, and so much more. All 24/7.

Megan Hall: Makes sense. But, why does it matter that hospitals use so much energy? I just want the best care possible.

Emma Mejia: Well, so do I. But, making this energy to power hospitals creates a lot of carbon pollution.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And the pollution from powering these hospitals can increase the risk of diseases like heart disease in communities near them.

Emma Mejia: And, that is not good for patients either.

Hamid Torabzadeh: So long story short, when hospitals reduce their carbon emissions, it helps with climate change and the health of the people in their community.

Megan Hall: Got it. But how? Is this really possible?

Hamid Torabzadeh: A good question. And the key is to use electricity, not gas or oil to power your hospital. And to get that electricity from renewable sources, like wind and solar.

Emma Mejia: And this isn’t just a theory. There’s already an all-electric hospital in the US! University of California, Irvine or UCI, opened its new facility on December 10, 2025.

Hamid Torabzadeh: To learn more about how they’re going electric, we talked with Joe Brothman, the director of facilities and general services with UCI Health.

Joe Brothman: There’s no natural gas coming in for heating, cooling, stoves in the kitchen, anything like that.

Emma Mejia: The hospital not only runs everything on electricity, but it also makes some of its own energy using solar power on site.

Megan Hall: How much electricity are they making?

Joe Brothman: We do have 1.2 megawatts of solar generation at this site, so that’s using, or it provides a little less than 10% of the daily use of the electricity for the hospital.

Hamid Torabzadeh: The hospital buys the rest of its energy from renewable sources.

Megan Hall: But what if there’s a power outage? How will they keep patients safe?

Emma Mejia: Just in case something like that happens, the hospital has a backup diesel power generator on campus.

Megan Hall: That all sounds great. Why hasn’t every hospital already done this?

Hamid Torabzadeh: Well, UCI Health is in California, where it’s mild and mostly sunny all year. That gives it some advantages that hospitals in colder places don’t have.

Joe Brothman: We tremendously benefit from our location, the climate, the geography, everything of this site that was selected really bodes well to an all electric campus like this.

Emma Mejia: California is a great place to use renewable energy. As of 2024, more than 60% of the state’s electricity was from renewable sources—especially solar power.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But even with all of these advantages, going all-electric did come with some extra costs.

Emma Mejia: The central utility plant, which takes in all the electricity from the grid, was around $500 million.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Joe says it would have been cheaper if they’d gone with the status quo of using gas.

Emma Mejia: But the leadership at the hospital agreed that using wind and solar was worth the investment.

Megan Hall: Does that mean it’s unlikely we’ll see other hospitals using this approach?

Emma Mejia: Not necessarily. Joe has some basic advice for hospital leaders who are thinking about going all-electric.

Hamid Torabzadeh: First, consider your location and climate.

Emma Mejia: Second, find out how much renewable energy your local provider can offer.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And third, make sure your leadership team is 100% on board and supportive of an all-electric project.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Hamid and Emma!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and Ocean State Media.

The post How do you build an all-electric hospital? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

The post How do you build an all-electric hospital? appeared first on Possibly.

After fire hydrants ran dry during the wildfires in Los Angeles, listeners wondered why firefighters didn’t just use ocean water to begin with. On this episode of Possibly, we explain the tradeoffs of using the ocean to fight fires.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

We recently saw firefighters in Los Angeles struggling to put out massive wildfires that destroyed more than ten thousand homes.

One of the big problems- not enough water. Which made a lot of people wonder- LA is right next to the ocean- why can’t firefighters just use that?

We had Hamid Torabzadeh and Emma Mejia from our Possibly Team look into this question.

Hamid Torabzadeh: Hi, Megan!

Emma Mejia: Hello!

Megan Hall: So, why don’t we use ocean water to fight forest fires?

Hamid Torabzadeh: It’s a bit complicated so let’s step back.

Emma Mejia: The quick answer is, Firefighters DO use ocean water, but only when they run out of fresh water.

Hamid Torabzadeh: This actually happened during the Palisades Fire in LA– which grew more than 14,000 acres on its fastest day.

Emma Mejia: To try to picture just how fast that is, that’s almost eight football fields consumed by fire every minute!

Megan Hall: Wow.

Hamid Torabzadeh: And with a fire of that kind of speed, there was simply too much demand on the water supply, causing the water pressure to lower.

Emma Mejia: And so, the firefighters had to use ocean water.

Megan Hall: And how do they get that ocean water?

Hamid Torabzadeh: There are some super cool aircrafts made just for that.

Emma Mejia: People call them “super scoopers.”

Hamid Torabzadeh: Those used in the LA fires can scoop up more than fifteen hundred gallons of ocean water at a time. That’s about 4 hot tubs’ worth of water.

Emma Mejia: This is a huge help when firefighters don’t have enough fresh water to put out a rapidly growing blaze.

Megan Hall: That sounds like a great solution to me. But, why don’t they just use ocean water in the first place?

Emma Mejia: Good question. There’s a few reasons why ocean water is the last choice for firefighters.

Hamid Torabzadeh: To learn more, we talked with Pat Megonigal, a senior scientist and Associate Director for Research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Emma Mejia: Pat and his team were curious about the effects of salt water on plants, trees, and soil, so they started an experiment—

Pat Megonigal: Where we draw water out of the Chesapeake Bay estuary and sprinkle it over this very large patch of forest. Once a year, we add the water for about 10 hours, watch it for a year, and then we repeat it the next year.

Hamid Torabzadeh: When they dump this water from this salty estuary, it’s pretty close to what happens when water from the ocean is used during forest fires.

Emma Mejia: Pat and his team kept dumping seawater every year, first once a year, then twice a year, and then three times a year.

Pat Megonigal: And there, after year three, we did begin to see the trees start to show signs of stress. Basically, they lost their leaves fairly early.

Megan Hall: So, that salty water was hurting the trees?

Emma Mejia: Exactly. Pat says that using seawater once for emergencies like wildfires probably won’t have a long-term impact on the forest.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But, it only took 3 years of these kinds of saltwater dumps to start making an impact.

Pat Megonigal: If you were to dump enough sea water, you know, at enough volume and at a high frequency, eventually it does affect the plants.

Megan Hall: But can’t rainwater just wash some of that salt away?

Emma Mejia: Super good point. If it rains a lot after firefighters use ocean water, more of the salt will get flushed out from the soil.

Hamid Torabzadeh: But of course dry places like LA don’t get that much rain.

Emma Mejia: And there’s something else to consider too. Pat says firefighters are wary of salt water.

Pat Megonigal: They prefer to use fresh water for variety of reasons, one of which is that it’s much easier on their equipment. Salt is just terrible for, equipment in general.

Megan Hall: Makes sense. So, it’s ok to use ocean water to fight fires if you have to, but it’s a last rather than first resort?

Emma Mejia: Yes, but the takeaway for protecting lives and homes is pretty clear.

Hamid Torabzadeh: For big, rapidly growing fires and when freshwater is not available, ocean water is a better choice than no water at all.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Hamid and Emma!

That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at  “askpossibly”

Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and The Public’s Radio.

The post Can we use ocean water to fight wildfires? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.

The post Can we use ocean water to fight wildfires? appeared first on Possibly.