NHS buildings in Braintree, Norwich, Luton, Melbourne and Welwyn Garden City will be partly run by the power of the sun after arrays totalling 250kW were installed.
As well as cutting the trust’s carbon footprint by 103 tonnes a year, it is hoped that the panels will generate £42,000 annually, made up of savings plus earnings from the Feed-In Tariff and and exporting energy to the National Grid.
Andy Saunders, head of estates at East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Photon Energy provided an excellent service throughout the project, installing 1000 panels across 5 geographically dispersed sites. The installation was done to a tight timescale (5 weeks from receipt of order to commissioning), within budget and undertaken with a minimum of disruption to site users.”
Photon Energy director, Jonathan Bates, said: “East of England Ambulance Service should be applauded for looking after the interests of patients and taxpayers by having the foresight to invest in order to save.
“These solar panels will bring in more than £40,000 a year and, just as importantly, the trust will cut its carbon footprint by hundreds of tonnes over the years and contribute to the national effort to lower emissions.
“The Department for Energy and Climate Change says average domestic electricity prices soared 45 per cent from 2006 to 2012. Projects like this are the perfect way to hedge against even steeper price hikes in the future.”