The UK has its first hospital to be completely powered by its own renewable energy during daylight hours. The advancement of sustainability in healthcare provides a key precedent for a greener future for the NHS.
Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, East Yorkshire has become the first hospital in the UK run solely from renewable energy, provided by its very own solar panel field. Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust began installing solar panels on land adjacent to the hospital site in September 2021. It took five months to install, but now a local hospital trust’s investment in solar technology is paying dividends.
The project, which quickly became known as the ‘Field of Dreams’, saw 11,000 panels installed at a cost of £4.2m in order that the Trust could begin to lower its carbon footprint and generate its own electricity.
Work was completed in February 2022, and now that the clocks have sprung forward, the arrival of longer days means the panels are now generating enough electricity to meet the complete daytime power needs of the entire Castle Hill site.
Sustainable future for healthcare
On the exciting project, Alex Best, Head of Capital for the Trust said:
“Back in November 2020 we were lucky enough to receive a grant from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of its Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to enable us to embark on this ambitious solar panel installation project.
“Our aim has always been to generate enough electricity to make the hospital site self-sufficient in the summer months when the days are longer, and now that the clocks have gone forward, the panels are generating around 26MWh per day so far in May and are anticipated to rise to a peak summer load of 50 MWh per day.”
“Not only does this represent a significant contribution towards our plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, but the project is also saving us a significant amount of money on hospital energy bills; approximately £250,000 to 300,000 every month.”
Marc Beaumont, Head of Sustainability for the Trust also commented:
“Castle Hill Hospital is a specialist regional centre for cardiology, oncology, and haematology for example, and it boasts one of just a handful of specialist infectious diseases units around the country. When you consider the size of the Castle Hill Hospital site and the amount of activity that goes on here, that’s a huge amount of power that’s required to keep it running.
“Now if you stop to consider what the solar panel project is actually contributing, it’s incredible to think that the power used to deliver patients’ radiotherapy treatment sessions, to support many life-saving surgical procedures, and to keep our intensive care unit running right now is all completely self-generated, green electricity.”
Final thought
The exciting, innovative project in Cottingham has truly paid off, saving the Cast Hill Hospital significant funds that can be reinvested back into treatment and care. More importantly, the incredible achievement in East Yorkshire provides a precedent and example for other hospitals and the wider NHS to adopt sustainability at the heart of healthcare. The Government’s Life Sciences Vision commits to achieving sustainability across the board, forming a key component in pushing the sector to achieve its potential.
Replicating success in sustainability at the national scale would save the NHS billions, allowing reinvestment in healthcare. Huge progress would also be made to achieve the Government’s environmental ambitions of achieving net-zero by 2050 and push the country toward a more self-reliant future in energy production.
Photo credit: Dennis Schroeder – NREL Photographer