A \u00a3100 million investment in solar power and clean energy production in 200 hospitals has been welcomed by DAUK.\r\n\r\nThe Government announced Great British Energy\u2019s first project will be to install solar panels and battery storage systems at NHS sites.\r\n\r\nThe projects aim to slash energy bills. Savings will be reinvested in the NHS, the Government said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In England, \u00a3100 million will support 200 NHS sites to install rooftop solar panels that could power operations. Leftover energy could be sold back to the grid.\r\n\r\nThe first panels are expected to be in hospitals by the end of this summer.\r\n\r\nDr Matt Lee, sustainability lead for the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK), welcomed the project.\r\n\r\nHe said: \u201cDAUK strongly supports this investment in solar power in hospitals. It will help tackle climate change and save hospitals millions of pounds over the lifetime of the panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClimate change is the greatest threat to health we face, causing thousands of deaths globally each year.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is therefore essential healthcare organisations lead the way in rapidly reducing carbon emissions.\r\n\r\n\u201cDAUK encourages the Government to look at other aspects of the health system that would have carbon, financial and health savings.\r\n\r\n“In particular improving the insulation and heating systems of hospitals, and supporting the transition to a more sustainable public sector food procurement system in line with the latest available scientific evidence.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe also encourage the Government to expand it’s public information messaging on the relationship between climate change and human health to accelerate climate action.\r\n\r\n\u201cDAUK would welcome the opportunity to explore collaboration opportunities on the expansion of Our Health, Our Planet<\/a>, an information resource supported by international organisations representing more than a million healthcare professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Announcing the project, the Government pointed to renewable schemes that are already saving NHS trusts money on their energy bills.\r\n\r\nLeeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust installed a solar canopy over the car park at its Wharfedale Hospital site. It will reduce carbon emissions by 43.7 tonnes per year and save the trust \u00a375,000 annually.\r\n\r\nA =project at Hull University Teaching Hospital has 11,000 solar panels which saved around \u00a3250,000 a month last summer.\r\n\r\nThe Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust\u2019s 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. It will save around \u00a315-20 million over the next two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister of State for Health Karin Smyth said: \u201cThis investment in clean energy will power our NHS while saving the taxpayer millions in energy bills.\r\n\r\n\u201cCrucially, we will divert the savings to where it matters most for patients and staff \u2013 frontline services.\u201d\r\n\r\nPlease support our work by contributing to our crowd funder<\/a> or by becoming a member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A \u00a3100 million investment in solar power and clean energy production in 200 hospitals has been welcomed by DAUK. The Government announced Great British Energy\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[650,65,58],"tags":[651,652,680],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-crisis","category-dauk-news","category-the-nhs","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-dr-matt-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Renewable energy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Saving taxpayer money<\/h3>\n\n\n\n