Two hundred NHS hospitals to get solar panels from Great British Energy

Great British Energy, a new, publicly owned company created by the government, is to invest £200m to fit solar panels to the roofs of 200 NHS hospitals and 200 schools in England. The aim is to cut costs and carbon and make key areas of the public sector less dependent on the uncertain energy market. The programme is expected to save £400m over the lifetime of the panels (30 years), with savings reinvested in the NHS and education. The NHS spends an estimated £1.4bn a year on energy, a figure that has more than doubled since 2019.

The programme is expected to last two years, and the first panels should be on NHS sites and schools by the end of summer 2025. The educational component of …