Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has won funding bids worth £1,386,794 to invest in two major energy-saving initiatives as part of a drive to upgrade its hospital buildings, improve frontline care and take action against climate change.
The Trust has been awarded £669,000 to install LED lighting at its Basingstoke and Andover hospitals and £717,794 to install solar panels at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.
Combined, the investment and rollout of these two projects is estimated to save the Trust more than £500,000 per year as well as provide sustainable value.
Funded by NHS England, the LED lighting will create a brighter environment and enable better control over lighting levels whilst also reducing energy costs and carbon emissions.
The funding for solar panels, which are due to be installed at the Winchester hospital within the next year, comes as part of a package initiated by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of £100 million from Great British Energy for the NHS to install solar power and battery storage solutions.
These panels are expected to generate 397MWh each year for Hampshire Hospitals – equivalent to the amount of energy used by more than 100 average homes in one year. The panels are guaranteed for the Trust for 20 years, meaning a saving of £2.5 million is expected over the project lifetime.
Shirlene Oh, Chief Strategy and Population Health Officer at Hampshire Hospitals, says: “Improving our sustainability is one of our top strategic priorities and this is a big step forward towards achieving our ambitions.
“These investments will help us to deliver on the triple bottom line—reducing our environmental impact, generating long-term cost savings, and enabling funds to be reinvested to deliver maximum benefit to our patients and wider community.”
The projects will also help Hampshire Hospitals progress against its Green Plan. Launched in 2022, the plan outlines how the Trust will become a more sustainable organisation, and one which is fully compliant with the NHS net zero 2040 Plan.
