SOLAR PV


Laying the groundwork for solar installation


Inadequately prepared solar PV projects can lose 10–20 per cent of their potential efficiency through shading, design faults, and avoidable delays. This represents thousands of pounds of lost generation every year. With Net Zero 2040 fast approaching and energy budgets under sustained pressure, NHS Trusts cannot afford to start from zero every time a funding opportunity arrives. In this article, Arianna Lee, marketing manager at Carbon3, outlines how estates teams can get ready before funding arrives, covering site checks, finance, design, procurement, delivery, and long-term maintenance.


The pattern is familiar. Your team applies for funding. Two months before the lodgement deadline you get the call to say your application is approved. Now you have six weeks to pull an entire installation


project together, and execute it. The pressure is not easing. The NHS has committed to


Net Zero by 2040.¹ Energy prices remain unpredictable and are likely to keep rising. Estates teams are dealing with an NHS maintenance backlog accounting for over £10bn, with around 5,400 clinical service incidents each year linked to property and infrastructure failures.² Starting the groundwork before funding arrives changes


everything. It means that when the call comes, your team are ready to go.


What a solar-ready site looks like Solar does not need to go on the roof, but it is usually the cheapest and fastest option. So what makes a roof suitable?


It needs to be in decent condition with some life left in


it. Ten years is a useful rule of thumb. If a roof is due for replacement, address that first or run it alongside the solar project. The good news is that when a roof replacement and solar installation are combined, they are almost always more cost-effective together than separately due to costs like scaffolding being shared across both projects. Modern solar panels weigh less than ever; around


12.8–14.8 kg/m² for a standard rooftop array, rising to around 20 kg/m² for ballasted flat-roof systems. Most NHS roofs can accommodate this, so roof structure is rarely an issue.³


Orientation and shading South-facing roofs perform best, but east and west still work well. Hospitals draw energy around the clock, not just at midday, so the generation profile aligns well with site demand regardless of orientation. Flat roofs are particularly well suited, as panels can be mounted at an optimised tilt angle. Shading is a more significant issue than most people


expect. A single obstacle, like a plant room, a parapet, or a neighbouring building, can reduce output across an entire string of panels, depending on how the system is designed. Identifying shading constraints before design begins determines both inverter selection and the realistic generation potential of the site.


The grid


It is not unusual to discover, late in a project, that the local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) has limited export


capacity or cannot accept the system’s full output. This does not necessarily end the project, but it changes the design and the financial model. All renewable electricity exported to the grid is eligible for Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) payments which can vary between 10-16p per kWh dependent on the tariff. This means any unused energy will generate income. If the DNO restricts or denies export, that excess energy will be lost, and no SEG payments will be made. An early conversation with your DNO costs nothing and can save months. DNO applications typically take 8–16 weeks to process.4


Where export is restricted,


battery energy storage can absorb excess generation and improve self-consumption, but this is better designed in, not bolted on, as it adds an extra cost. If the roof is not suitable, the project does not need to


end there. Car parks and spare land frequently offer better generation opportunities than the buildings themselves.


Case study 1 n Solar carports at Kent and Canterbury Hospital


When assessment of the main hospital buildings revealed roof constraints that would have significantly limited installed capacity, the solution was in the car park. We are now delivering an 851.5 kWp solar carport


system across two of the hospital’s car parks, funded through the Great British Energy programme. The system is projected to save the hospital approximately £200,000 per year in electricity costs. It is also the biggest solar carport across the NHS estate. This project demonstrates that where the obvious location is unsuitable, a creative approach to site


October 2026 Health Estate Journal 113


Kent and Canterbury Hospital.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188