The first project for Great British Energy will put rooftop solar panels on 200 hospitals, saving NHS sites hundreds of millions on energy bills and helping the drive towards net zero.
The £200m investment from the UK government and Great British Energy, a company owned by the British people, will immediately start working with the NHS, schools and devolved governments to install solar panels and build local clean power.
In England around £100 million in funding will support nearly 200 NHS sites, covering a third of NHS Trusts, to install rooftop solar panels, powering operations and with potential to sell leftover energy back to the grid. The first panels are expected to be in hospitals by the end of summer 2025.
Rising energy bills in recent years have cost taxpayers millions of pounds and eaten into budgets for public sector organisations. Estates and facilities account for 15% of the NHS carbon footprint, and the NHS is the UK’s largest single public energy user, with an estimated annual energy cost of nearly £1.5 billion. That has more than doubled since 2019.
Great British Energy’s first investment could see millions invested back into frontline services, targeting deprived areas, with lifetime savings for the NHS and schools of up to £400 million over around 30 years.
Estimates suggest that the average NHS site could save up to £45,000 per year on their annual energy bill if they had solar panels with complementary technologies installed such as batteries.
In addition, local authorities and community energy groups will also be supported by nearly £12 million to help build local clean energy projects – from community-led onshore wind, to solar on rooftops and hydropower in rivers – to help drive growth and reduce bills.
Proven potential
Currently less than 10% of hospitals have solar panels installed, but the technology has huge potential to save money on bills. For example, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust installed a solar canopy over the car park at its Wharfedale Hospital site that will reduce carbon emissions by 43.7 tonnes per year and save the trust £75,000 annually.
A large project at Hull University Teaching Hospital has 11,000 solar panels which saved it around £250,000 a month last summer. (See the ‘Zero thirty’ feature in the May/June 2024 issue of our Pulse magazine for a more detailed report). The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s new solar farm at a former landfill site is expected to power the entire hospital site with self-generated renewable energy for around 288 days a year – saving around £15-20 million over the next two decades. A smaller solar project at the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, including a Solar Car Port utilising ‘empty space’ above the staff car park, will reduce CO2 by 222,000Kg and energy consumption by 1,100,000 kWh annually. (See our Case Study ‘Solar Car Port’ in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of our Pulse magazine for a more detailed report).
Dr Richard Smith, Chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change says: “Great British Energy putting solar panels on hospitals and schools is win-win-win because it will cut carbon and costs, put the savings back into the NHS and education, and make the NHS and schools less dependent on the waywardness of the energy market.”
Sites to benefit
The support will target hospitals and schools with buildings that are able to accommodate solar panels in areas of England most in need. The NHS ran an expression of interest process to identify the selected hospital sites, with installations managed by the NHS.
The full list of hospitals to benefit from this investment can be found here: Great British Energy Solar: list of hospitals (CSV, 8.76 KB)
Great British Energy
Backed by £8.3 billion over this Parliament, Great British Energy will own and invest in clean energy projects across the UK. This will range from supporting local energy - like the solar power schemes announced today - to unlocking significant investment in major clean energy projects that will revitalise the UK’s industrial heartlands with new jobs, alongside securing Britain’s energy supply.
