“As the largest employer in Wolverhampton, we take sustainability very seriously and are committed to continually working to reduce our carbon footprint. We have taken a number of steps to reduce and better manage our energy consumption and operate in a sustainable manner. One of these steps is to look at using renewable energy so we are very pleased the development will be opening soon and delighted at the way the partnerships have worked out.”
Ashley Malin, Managing Director at Vital Energi, added: “We’re delighted to have transformed a former coal mine and landfill site into this impressive solar farm, which is the largest single source of green energy on a hospital site within the UK.
“The clean energy will power the air source heat pumps within the hospital, and significantly reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint.”
Work has also been completed on the underground cabling to connect the hospital to the solar farm, which covers a distance of one and a half miles.
RWT has received around £15m in grant funding for the project. This comprised contributions from the government’s Levelling-Up fund, the NHS and Salix Finance, a government-funded body.
The Trust also received a further £33m to carry out green energy works as part of the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
L-R: Jon Gwynne (CEF), Ashley Malin, Professor David Loughton CBE, Stew Watson