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energy planning increasingly needs to consider the electrical estate as one interconnected system rather than a collection of technologies.
From project to programme: Scunthorpe General Hospital RenEnergy’s work with Humber Health Partnership at Scunthorpe General Hospital demonstrates how this approach can work in practice. Rather than treating renewable energy as a single installation, the hospital has developed a multi-phase solar PV programme using different areas of its existing estate. The programme began with a substantial solar carport over a car park used for housings and subsequently expanded across rooftop and additional carport locations within the estate. Together, the installations represent more than
Pitt Car Park solar car port in use on a busy day.
Physical constraints matter too. Which roofs are suitable for solar PV? Which car parks might accommodate solar carports? Where could BESS be safely located? Where are substations and viable cable routes? What additional loads are anticipated? How might EV charging requirements develop? The answers rarely point towards one technology or a single intervention. Increasingly, they point towards an integrated, phased energy strategy.
The grid connection may become the estate’s limiting asset As hospitals electrify, one of the most important questions may become not simply how much renewable electricity an estate can generate, but how much electricity its infrastructure can import, distribute, generate, store, and control.
Solar PV car ports provide protection from the inclement British weather.
Solar PV affects how much electricity an estate imports. BESS changes when electricity can be stored and consumed. EV charging introduces new demand. Electrified heating could introduce substantially more.
All interact with
the same underlying electrical infrastructure. Existing switchgear, substations, transformers, cable routes, and grid connections can therefore influence what is achievable. An apparently straightforward decision to install EV chargers, for example, may have implications for available electrical capacity elsewhere. Solar generation may change the business case for battery storage, while storage and intelligent load management could alter how peak demand is managed. This is why future
98 Health Estate Journal October 2026
2.14 MWp of solar PV capacity, comprising 4,214 solar modules and 66 inverters. The significance of the programme is not simply its scale, Scunthorpe demonstrates how an estate can be considered as a collection of energy opportunities rather than relying on one available roof or car park. The Pitt Car Park installation alone provides nearly 1.2MWp of capacity, while rooftop systems and further carports add generation across other parts of the hospital. It also demonstrates that estate-wide thinking does not require everything to be constructed simultaneously. Phasing allows infrastructure to develop alongside budgets, operational priorities, and available areas. Experience from earlier installations can inform subsequent phases, while longer-term planning can help prevent individual projects from restricting future opportunities. For large healthcare sites, this can be more practical
than approaching decarbonisation as either one enormous intervention or a series of unrelated technology purchases.
Making existing infrastructure work harder Space is often at a premium within healthcare estates. Operational land cannot simply be allocated to renewable infrastructure without considering competing requirements. Suitable roofs offer an obvious opportunity for solar
PV, although structural capacity, roof condition, existing plant, shading, access, and refurbishment plans all require consideration. Car parks offer another possibility. Solar carports retain the primary function of the parking area while introducing an elevated structure for renewable electricity generation. As transport electrification progresses, the same area may also accommodate EV charging and associated electrical infrastructure. Our work at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby illustrates how an individual project can provide the first phase of a wider strategy. A 303.35 kWp solar PV carport comprising 567 modules has been delivered within the hospital estate, enabling an existing car park to generate renewable electricity without requiring additional land, The installation used a phased approach allowing car park areas to remain open during construction. The solar carport is expected to avoid approximately 36.4 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. Importantly, it also establishes a foundation from which further renewable generation could be developed across other parking areas. Scunthorpe illustrates what a multi-phase programme can become. Grimsby demonstrates how that journey can begin.
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