By Liz Crudgington
Summer sunshine could provide enough electricity to power half of Margate’s Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, thanks to the installation of 1,200 solar panels on the site.
East Kent Hospitals Trust is working with its facilities arm 2gether Support Solutions and energy performance company Breathe on a project to reduce carbon emissions and make more use of green technologies.
As well as the solar panels, the project involves installing LED lighting, upgrading heating and cooling systems to make the hospitals more comfortable for staff and patients, and improving insulation.
The works, funded partly by a grant from NHS Improvement, will reduce the Trust’s carbon emissions by more than 2,000 tonnes each year, and will also save £1.2million a year.
Liz Shutler, East Kent Hospitals’ deputy chief executive and director of strategic development, said: “This is a hugely important project that will deliver benefits for staff and patients, as well as for the environment.
“Our corner of the south east benefits from some beautifully sunny days so it makes sense to be able to harness that to create electricity for our hospitals.”
Keith Bourne, 2gether Support Solutions’ assistant director of strategic estates, said: “We are delighted to be working with Breathe to accelerate significant energy saving across the Trust’s estate,
“The investment will enable the Trust to reduce its carbon emissions and energy consumption whilst replacing aging plant with state-of-the-art equipment for the long term.”
The solar panels are due to start producing electricity next month.
Genuine question, the roof space is huge on that building. Couldn’t they have been installed on the roof rather than taking over precious greenspace?
Hope these panels are going to be reliable, especially if they are going to power the maternity department, already plagued with problems.
Well done QEQM hospital on this much needed energy saving solar panels. There has been a lot of investment on the hospital site current services must remain at the hospital.No transfer of important services to other sites. Prove the doom and gloomers wrong.
I think the government should introduce legislation to make the installation of solar panels obligatory on all new buildings, whether they be business, leisure or homes. It’s a relatively simple way to cut down on our carbon emissions and we should be doing everything we can to improve our environment. So I am delighted to hear that QEQM is having the panels and other energy saving devices installed.
Totally agree with Ramsgate Girl and Giovanna. Meanwhile the Planning Inspectorate has granted a DCO for a solar farm the same size as Faversham , next to Faversham itself,on a greenfield site next to an SSSI.
Totally agree about the need to enforce solar panels on roofs of new buildings, especially large residential or commercial buildings. Why not mount them on girders over car parks? After all, they would not be exactly spoiling the view,of a car park!
I was tempted by the offer of solar panels for our roof a few years ago but there were extra costs to the installation that would have rendered it pointless. So the government should introduce free schemes to install on all suitable roofs. The take-up would be huge.
Reducing costs, reducing carbon dioxide and providing skilled jobs.