The first five NHS sites have been fitted with Great British Energy solar panels to cut energy bills, the Government has announced.
It follows the Government’s announcement in March to award £180 million for schools and hospitals, of which £100m goes to NHS projects, to install rooftop solar from Great British Energy, which has been set up as a publicly owned energy company.
Over the summer, panels were installed at five NHS sites – Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
The combined project cost was £704,332 and is expected to deliver annual energy bill savings of around £63,200. Over a typical 30-year lifetime, this equates to an estimated £1.9 million in savings.
Across England, £100 million is funding rooftop solar at nearly 200 NHS sites – about a third of all NHS trusts – to power services with clean energy while giving them the potential to sell surplus energy back to the grid.
Chris Gormley, chief sustainability officer at NHS England, said the funding would enable a 300% expansion of solar power in the NHS, ’slashing millions of pounds from energy bills, which can then be redirected into patient care’.
‘These new solar panels are expected to save the NHS £8.6 million every year once all the projects are completed, adding up to £260 million over their lifetime.
‘That’s a massive leap towards a more sustainable, cost-efficient NHS – building on the great work already undertaken in the five years since we became the first healthcare system in the world to commit to reaching net zero,’ he said.
In recent years, soaring energy bills have eaten into healthcare providers’ budgets. The NHS is the UK’s largest public sector energy user, with its annual energy bill more than doubling since 2019.
Chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, described the funding as ‘great news’.
‘Spiralling energy costs have landed hospitals with huge bills – more than £1.4billion since 2019.
‘Supporting NHS trusts to generate their own solar power and to invest savings going back into local NHS services is good for patients, good for the environment and good for taxpayers,’ said Mr Elkeles.
Currently, only around 10% of hospitals have solar panels installed, despite the potential to reduce bills. Estimates suggest that with complementary technologies such as batteries, NHS sites could save up to £45,000 a year each.
Alongside the five NHS installations, three schools also received solar panels over the summer, with eight more due this autumn. Together, they will save an estimated £3.8 million on energy bills, with all savings reinvested in local NHS and school services as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to fix public services.
