New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton will become the first hospital in England to run on renewable energy.

Construction of the solar farm will begin this autumn and could be completed as early as next spring.

The new farm will link directly to Wolverhampton’s largest hospital via private wire (underground cabling), which will stretch a half mile between the two sites.

The idea to turn the former tip into a wind warm was first raised at the Council in Wolverhampton.

Speaking on the topic, councillor Steve Evans said: “It’s toxic land, we can’t build on here, we have never been able to do anything and we had some issues with fly tipping

“But one of the projects we’ve looked at is a solar farm so it’s something we very much wanted to do to supply clean energy. Sadly we just couldn’t get the funding streams,” he adds.

This changed upon the entry of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust. Their involvement catalysed the project, working collaboratively with the Council to draw up plans for the solar farm.

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Stew Watson, describing the “win-win” for the hospital, hopes that success here will have larger implications for the NHS.

“By moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels to clean, green energy, we hope it will reduce the amount of parties needing healthcare treatment and the hospital in the longer term.

“The huge benefit to the hospital is that we will be able to power all of our electronic needs for the site from the solar farm.

“So we will move away from the grid – we will always have the grid as a back-up because of the services we provide in healthcare – but we will look to harness the energy of the sun each year and use that to power the full hospital.

“In terms of the monetary side of things – this could generate savings of something in the order of £15-20m over the next 20 years. That money will be pushed straight back to frontline in terms of healthcare.”

The hospital already has in-house renewable practices, including harnessing heat from the waste incinerator. This will provide additional power upon completion of the wind farm.

Wolverhampton is among the majority of councils that have declared a climate emergency. The city has set a target to reach net zero by 2041.