Car park solar panels plan for PRH

‘Gull wing shaped’ solar panels could soon be appearing over cars parked in spaces at a hospital in Telford.

The shelter-like structures would be held up by posts in the centres of rows of spaces at Princess Royal Hospital, according to a planning application lodged with Telford & Wrekin Council.

Planning agent ZLC Energy has provided council planners with technical drawings and information on the panels. They have been tested to cope with wind and snow.

The agent said the panels will be sited on the car park to the northwest of the hospital where the closest ‘neighbour’ is Severn Hospice.

The agents said that the structures would be “unlikely to cause glare due to the low pitch of the canopy”.

“The highest point of the canopy is 4 metres high along the outer edges and extending over the parking spaces at an inclination of 10 degrees facing east and west in a gull wing style shape,” the application form reads.

They are metal framed canopy structures with single posts down the centre of the double parking spaces.

They would be a “minimum of 10m to the curtilage of a hospice”.

Hospice chiefs have been included as consultees for the application as have Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council, borough councillor Karen Blundell and the Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Earlier this week the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said it had submitted a funding bid to install solar panels and LED lighting at Princess Royal Hospital.

The trust has already secured more than £17 million for various green projects.

It said that one of the benefits will be to save on running costs allowing it to release more resources into front line care.

Inese Robotham, assistant chief executive and chair of the trust’s climate change group, said: “The funding will deliver significant reductions in our energy costs, and savings can then be redirected into frontline care.

“When the work is complete, the investment could save an estimated £1m a year in energy costs and will reduce emissions by over 3,000 tonnes of carbon each year.”

The trust is going big on LED lighting, electric vehicle points, greener travel options, and recycling.

It has also been generating an income from selling cardboard to recyclers. Seventeen tonnes of cardboard have been produced and recycled in just eight weeks as a result of using new balers.