Since being switched on, the 10,000-panel solar farm has produced enough energy to power 190 three-bedroom houses for a year, or to boil almost 200,000 kettles.
The four megawatt farm was anticipated to reduce the hospital’s electricity bill by around £500,000 a year. But with world energy prices spiralling, the actual savings could be almost double that figure.
A few years back, Swansea Bay University Health Board was awarded £13.6 million, on an invest-to-save basis, to bring down its energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint by around 5,000 tonnes a year. The money was awarded through Re:Fit, a national programme, supported by the Welsh Government. Following an extensive selection process, the health board selected Vital Energi as its partner.
Phase one, a range of energy conservation measures at Morriston and Singleton hospitals and other health board premises, was completed last year at a cost of £7.7 million. The solar farm, developed on a 14-hectare site at a cost of £5.9 million, comprised the second phase.
Swansea Bay’s Assistant Director of Operations, Des Keighan, said the hospital previously used around 20 gigawatts of electricity a year.
“The first phase of energy saving measures reduced the hospital energy demand to 16 gigawatts a year,” he said.
“The solar farm will reduce the need to import energy from the grid by a further four gigawatts over the course of a year.
“It was expected that over the winter months the solar farm would contribute electricity, but that the hospital would still need to continue to buy power from the grid every day. What has come as a pleasant surprise is that for a total of 50 hours, the hospital has been entirely powered by the solar farm, and nearly 30,000 kilowatts sold back to the National Grid. This is despite the fact that the solar farm hasn’t been operating continually over the winter.
“It has still been undergoing tests and fine-tuning, and is not due to be completely finished until the end of March. So this additional performance has been even more of a bonus.”
Since October, the solar farm has produced 598,000 kWh (kilowatts an hour) of energy. That is enough to:
- Power 190 three-bedroom houses for a year;
- Boil 196,333 kettles;
- Power 4,496 55-inch TVs or 196 washing machines for a year;
- Drive a Tesla Model Y car 2,103,571 miles.
But it doesn’t end there. Factor in the first phase energy saving measures and the overall drop in electricity demand from October until February at Morriston is nearly 1.5 million kilowatts. That is sufficient to:
- Power 484 three-bedroom houses for a year;
- Boil 500,000 kettles, power 11,450 TVs or 500 washing machines for a year;
- Drive the same Tesla car 5,357,143 miles.
Mr Keighan said the value of the savings was also expected to be considerably higher than expected because the world situation meant energy prices were increasingly so rapidly.
“When this started, electrical prices were around 13p per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the Grid,” he said.
“This morning it was 25p per kWh. That’s not far off doubled, with prices expected to increase over the coming weeks.
“We want to extend the solar farm by installing another 1MW of solar panelling and also install 2MWh battery for storage
“We get two to three pence per kW if we export. And at the moment electricity from the Grid is costing us around 25p a KWh and from April that could be as high as 50p. So using it ourselves makes far more sense and we are trying to secure funding for that, and we hope that will be the next stage.”
Additionally, the solar farm will save around 1,000 tonnes of carbon a year, on top of the 4,000 tonnes saved by the first phase
