The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has secured £445,000 of funding from Great British Energy to install a 200 kW solar-panel canopy over a car-park at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
“It is a project that will reduce our carbon footprint further and contribute to savings of an estimated £1 million a year in energy costs, which can then be redirected into frontline care,” said Inese Robotham, Assistant Chief Executive and Chair of the Trust’s Climate Change Group.
Work for the solar panel project is scheduled to begin in early 2026, and the scheme is expected to generate clean energy and deliver annual savings of about £35,000 in energy costs.
Over time, these savings are projected to relieve pressure on the Trust’s budget and allow redirected investment into frontline care.
The project aligns with the NHS’s current broader sustainability ambitions.
The NHS is currently one of the UK’s largest energy users, with annual bills around £1.34bn and rising, an amount that has almost doubled since 2019.
The project is one of the 34 trusts that will benefit from the Great British Energy’s solar-panel programme– which includes schools, NHS sites and military facilities.
In total, around 260 NHS sites will benefit from Great British Energy’s solar roll-out, alongside around 250 schools, and around 15 military sites.
The programme is expected to yield up to £65m in lifetime energy-bill savings across participants.
Savings across the NHS
Several other NHS organisations are actively installing solar systems as part of the net-zero strategy.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has installed solar panels at its Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital, which are expected to supply around 10 % of the site’s electricity and save circa £17,000 annually.
Meanwhile, NHS Lanarkshire has deployed panels at its Kirklands headquarters, generating about 71,000 kWh annually and meeting around 13% of the site’s energy needs, aiding its goal of net-zero by 2040.
At University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust a £2.59m grant has been awarded to install solar panels across multiple hospitals, contributing to the broader NHS plan to expand solar capacity by over 300%.
And at Hull Citycare’s Marfleet Health Centre the installation of 166 panels is projected to generate around 56,000 kWh per annum and meet approximately 62 % of the centre’s energy demand—delivering about £9,500 in annual savings.
All of these NHS projects that are taking place this year will help to reduce carbon emissions, lower energy bills and support reinvestments back into care services.