(Solar) Farming the Future: Renewable Energy at Swansea Bay University Health Board

(Solar) Farming the Future: Renewable Energy at Swansea Bay University Health Board

6th September 2022

The NHS is one of the most significant landowners in Wales, and with this knowledge, our team was perfectly placed to begin one of the most ambitious Welsh renewables projects within the Swansea area – the Swansea Bay UHB solar farm.

Solar farms present a fascinating avenue for decarbonisation in the NHS. Health Boards in Wales are similar in nature to NHS Trusts across the rest of the UK but tend to have a broader geographical and treatment remit.

It’s a fantastic place to use underutilised land owned or in this case leased from a neighbouring landowner or indeed any underutilised roof space. I was delighted to have been asked to work across the Swansea Bay University Health Board project over the last few years, delivering the first hospital-owned solar farm in the UK together with other energy saving and decarbonisation projects. The 4MW installation has 10,000 panels, which are expected to generate enough power to cover a fifth of Morriston Hospital’s electricity consumption every year and at times during the year powers the entire 115,000 m2 acute hospital at Morriston, Swansea.

How did the project come about, and what benefits can the Swansea Bay UHB expect as a result?

Solar PV: The Basics

Solar photovoltaics (known colloquially as solar PV) are one of the best ways to decarbonise your home or business. They offer benefits such as:

  • Decreasing energy bills: with solar PV, your organisation can produce its own energy, meaning that it doesn’t need to purchase energy from the grid. The result? More affordable energy bills.
  • Reinforcing a commitment to sustainability: consumers are demanding more from the businesses they frequent, and a commitment to decarbonisation is a large factor for many consumers. According to recent research from Deloitte, a commitment to decarbonisation was one of the top five practices consumers look for when making a purchase from a sustainable company.
  • Energy production: how would your business feel if they not only could limit their energy bills, but replace them entirely (and even sell energy back to the grid)? Solar PV gives your organisation the opportunity to do just that (more on that later).

The decision to create the solar farm was relatively simple – but delivering the plan was another kettle of fish entirely.

The Planning Stages

While the project was successful, that didn’t mean that it was easy, and as the first project of its kind, we had nothing but our experience to rely upon. Delivering a project of this size and scale had stumbling blocks, and as a project manager, one of the most difficult parts was acknowledging and finding solutions for the competing priorities and restrictions of the programme stakeholders. What was important to one stakeholder was not important to
another, though both had excellent (and valid) points of order.

Beyond stakeholder management and engagement were the legalities of the project itself. There were land documents to contend with, leases to navigate, and that’s before encountering the land itself.

Environmental and Ecological Considerations

There were also significant environmental impacts to overcome. Our team worked hard to get the appropriate environmental protections in place and had more Japanese knotweed to contend with that we realised! The project took great care not to disturb other elements of wildlife. One of the fields was a nesting site, and during nesting season we halted installation to allow the wildlife to continue undisturbed.

Financial and Environmental Impacts

The project was wildly successful – over the past few years, the project has saved the Swansea Bay University Health Board more than £500,000 in energy costs alone, and with current rising fuel costs, I’d imagine savings upward of £1,000,000. In addition, the solar farm generated 30,000kWh surplus electricity in first four months, which the Health Board could then sell back to the energy grid. The hospital aims to produce 20% of its own energy in the future - it’s fantastic to think that these impacts will allow valuable funds to be reinvested into the Health Board itself, and to be on the cutting edge of a project with such a positive impact on the global stage.

Moving Forward

The response that we’ve had from the project was very encouraging. Other health boards are interested in ways to use the land at their disposal to make their organisations more sustainable. However, these kinds of innovations rely on continuity of funding. There are thousands of projects poised and ready to move forward, but are waiting on funding from the requisite bodies.

My hope is that other professionals, Health Boards and NHS Trusts will see the positive impact of this project, and to think creatively about ways to use our land to power the services that we need most – in Wales and throughout the UK.


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