Priory invests £9.5m in solar power as part of move towards carbon free healthcare
Date: 29th January 2025
Priory has moved closer to achieving its ambition of providing carbon-free health and social care, thanks to a ground-breaking £9.5million investment in solar power.
The investment - which is leading to the installation of of solar arrays at 80 Priory sites across the UK - will eventually enable the UK’s largest mental health and adult social care provider to become its own energy supplier.
So far, solar arrays have been installed at 21 sites and the project is on course to realise huge savings, with 2.5million MWh of energy expected to be generated by the end of 2025.
That would realise an annual double saving, cutting £1.6million from the Priory’s electricity bills and a 1,500 tonnes reduction in carbon emissions, meeting Priory’s ambition of making a 25% initial emissions reduction by the end of 2025.
Steve Baker, Managing Director – North, at Priory said: “This is solar power on an epic scale; it’s going to make significant savings which will allow us to invest even more into the services that benefit the people we support.”
The project is being delivered in collaboration with business sustainability partners Commercial.
Steve said: “Right from our first conversations with Commercial it was evident that we had a joint ambition to be able to implement large-scale energy generation.
“Commercial were able to demonstrate what they had done before, and we knew that would be a game changer for us. We could see the environmental benefits, but also the significant savings that we would generate to reinvest into frontline care.”
Commercial Business Transformation Specialist Vicky Kelly and Energy Consultant Billy Friar demonstrated how energy rationalisation solutions and solar power generation would generate significant cost and carbon savings.
“We started talking about solar and soon that evolved from one site to multiple sites across the estate, some Grade II Listed, and some with complex planning problems which we overcame,” Vicky said.
“By the end of our first year we have installed arrays at 21 sites, with the project set to expand even further in the coming months and years to the extent that some will be generating more energy than they use.
“We can then arrange for that to be sold back to the grid and to offset the energy that is used elsewhere on Priory’s estate, which is a massive step on the way to them becoming entirely energy self-sufficient.”
As part of the Priory Strategic Plan, Priory established its Green programme in 2022 to deliver a 25% reduction in emissions by 2025, the first step towards a wider ambition to achieve Net Zero in line with Government targets in 2050.
Steve Baker added: “The Priory Plan talks about not just the cost of doing things, but about doing them in the right way. Our impact on the environment is an important societal issue and it’s vital we do our bit.
“We have the potential to offer emission-free healthcare, which is fantastic in itself. If we think about it from the patient’s perspective, of course they want good care and support, and a comfortable space to stay, but green issues are also so important to people.
“As a health and social care provider we are able to demonstrate our commitment to environment, as well as to each person we care for.”
ENDS
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About Priory and MEDIAN Group
Priory is the UK’s largest independent provider of mental health and adult social care services. Priory treats more than 70 conditions, including depression, anxiety, addictions and eating disorders, as well as children’s mental health, across its nationwide network of sites. Priory also supports autistic adults and adults with a learning disability, Prader-Willi Syndrome and brain injuries, as well as older people, within specialist residential care and supported living facilities – helping as many people as possible to live their lives.
Priory is part of the MEDIAN Group, the leading European provider of high-quality mental health and rehabilitation services. The MEDIAN Group comprises: Priory in the UK with 280 facilities and 5,000 beds caring for 28,000 people, MEDIAN in Germany with 120 facilities and 18,000 beds caring for 256,000 patients, and Hestia in Spain with 14 facilities and 2,000 beds caring for 10,000 people in Spain, with more than 30,000 employees across the group.