ROYAL United Hospitals Bath are marking their ambitions to become more energy efficient after it received equipment designed to improve their heating infrastructure.

The hospital’s NHS Foundation trust are marking this as a milestone in what they call ‘Project Clean Heat’, which aims to make Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH) a greener, cleaner environment for all those who use it.

The changes have been made possible thanks to a £21.6-million grant from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, administered by Salix.

The grant is also expected to help to fund other building improvement, such as additional solar panelling, better insulation, high quality LED lighting, and more efficient heating controls.

RUH are looking to make the work being conducted on Project Clean Heat more visible to local residents going forward, having already put in work towards it in recent years.

Alongsides bringing in equipment, residents should be able to see hoardings and scaffolding to enable work on the project to take place.

The improvements are due to be completed in 2026, and from then they will save the hospital around 3,212 tonnes of carbon every year – the equivalent of more than 14,500 return journeys from Bath to Edinburgh in the average petrol car.

Toni Lynch, chief nursing officer at RUH, said: “This project has been many years in the planning, and we are delighted to see the equipment arrive on site.

“The environment and climate change has a direct impact on people’s health, and it’s really important that as a hospital, we act to reduce our carbon footprint for the benefit of our staff, patients, community, and wider society.

“We have got to this point thanks to a number of partner organisations: the Carbon Energy Fund (CEF), Salix, and Veolia. We are very grateful for their support to help us make these vital changes happen.”

Will Fairclough, project manager at CEF, added: “Project Clean Heat is making positive steps to delivering the whole PSDS project scope, funded by Salix.

“With the equipment arriving to site, this marks a huge milestone for the project.

“The project team continues to strive for the RUH Project Clean Heat to be a success and looks forward to integrating the heat pump units, as well as other new technologies, into the Trust estate.”

Ian Rodger, director of public sector decarbonisation at Salix, said: “It’s important that we celebrate these key milestones in projects, especially when the teams have worked so hard to get to this stage and put so much effort into getting the planning right so that these critical stages are delivered on time.

“They still have some time to go and we’re proud to continue to support the RUH’s ambitions to reach net zero.

“They are not only creating a better environment for patients, staff and the community but this project is expected to save the hospital significant tonnes of carbon every year.

“This is better for all of us, and certainly for our planet.”