The government has allocated over £630 million in funding towards upgrades for public buildings that will help reduce energy costs.
Social institutions including schools, hospitals and care homes, will receive help from the government to install technologies, including solar panels and heat pumps. These will reduce the amount spent on powering and heating such buildings, in turn reducing cost to the taxpayer.
The government estimates that the investment will lead to an average of £650 million in savings for taxpayers annually for the next 12 years.
Organisations set to benefit include the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands, which will receive £1 million to install solar panels and heat pumps at one of its aircraft hangars, while £90,000 will go to Worcester City Council to upgrade the King George V Community Centre with new heat pumps, solar panels and double glazing.
The minister for energy consumers Miatta Fahnbulleh said the investment will “see local communities benefit from our sprint to clean power”.
The investment from the government comes after its flagship Great British Energy Company launched its first official project, committing £200 million to install solar panels on around 200 schools and 200 NHS sites across England.
Public sector decarbonisation
The investment is part of the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which up to February 2025 had awarded grants worth over £2.8 billion between financial years 2020/21 and 2025/26 to fund over 1,200 projects at public sector buildings.
While a significant amount of the funding goes toward heat-related technologies including energy capture for heating, heat networks and heat pumps, rooftop solar PV is increasingly recognised for its potential to reduce costs as well as contribute to clean power targets.
In September last year, Triodos Bank UK provided a £3 million loan to the Solar for Schools Community Benefit Society (CBS). The Solar for Schools CBS owns and operates over 150 rooftop installations but has over 100 schools on its waiting list.
National Grid also has a school solar venture, offering £2.7 million toward rooftop solar PV on schools in 2024 in partnership with Solar for Schools.
GB Energy expects that its £200 billion injection, with £80 million earmarked specifically for schools, will deliver between 70MW and 100MW of solar generation. The investment could also be used by public buildings to install battery energy storage systems (BESS).
According to the the interim CEO of GB Energy, its domain could extend to enable to the use of public land for renewables projects.
The company also pledged to ensure its supply chain is slavery-free, because, as McGrail stated, as a publicly-owned company, the commitment is about “always aspiring to meet the gold standard across all areas of best practice”.
