Castle Hill Hospital fully powered by solar panels during day

The 11,000-panel solar farm has been installed at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham

Solar panels at a hospital site in East Yorkshire are now generating enough electricity to meet its entire daytime running needs, officials have said.

The 11,000-panel solar farm has been installed at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust said the £4.2m grant-funded scheme meant the trust was currently saving about £250,000 a month.

It is part of plans for the trust to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

The £4.2m project was completed in February

Alex Best, from the trust, said: "Back in November 2020 we were lucky enough to receive a grant from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy to enable us to embark upon this ambitious solar panel installation project.

"Our aim has always been to generate enough electricity to make the hospital site self-sufficient in the summer months when the days are longer," he said.

'Green electricity'

The panels are currently generating about 26MWh per day, the equivalent to the average daily energy needs of 3,250 UK households, Mr Best said.

The electricity generated is enough to meet the daytime running needs of the entire hospital, with output expected to almost double during the peak summer months, he added.

Head of sustainability Marc Beaumont added: "When you consider the size of the Castle Hill Hospital site and the amount of activity that goes on here, that's a huge amount of power that's required to keep it running.

"It's incredible to think that the power used to... to support many life-saving surgical procedures, and to keep our intensive care unit running right now is all completely self-generated, green electricity," he added.

The trust, which also runs Hull Royal Infirmary, is replacing 20,000 lights across both sites with LED bulbs and is to insulate buildings and install pumps to cut heating costs.