Case study — Health and Social Care
Lanchester Hospital Solar PV
549 roof-mounted solar PV panels powering five wards, installed over a tight four-week programme with zero defects.
- Lanchester Road Hospital
- Health and Social Care
- Durham
- 4 weeks
- 549 panels
Background
This project at Lanchester Road Hospital, a mental health hospital in Durham, involved installing 549 roof-mounted solar PV panels to provide electricity to five separate wards across the hospital.
The works were completed over a tight four-week timescale and required careful coordination to ensure minimum disruption to day-to-day hospital operation. We achieved a high quality of service for this project, with 0 RIDDORs and 0 defects.
- Assessment
- Design
- Coordination
- Installation
- Evaluation
Delivery approach
Synergize leveraged our ISO 9001 Accrediation approved supplier matrix to ensure specialist support from our partners for this project. In particular, we worked closely with our accredited supply chain partners, Platinum Renewables, to complete full building assessments and surveys of the site, design the most cost-effective solar PV system based on the available roof pitches, and deliver the installation works.
Our experienced project manager, Nicola Goodhall, managed works from our local head office in North Yorkshire.
Challenges & solutions
01 Minimising disruption
To reduce distress to mental health service users, we carefully sequenced work around clinical routines and patient wellbeing. Secure access, deliveries and segregated work areas were agreed with Estates and ward teams, and daily communication helped reduce patient anxiety, maintain safe routes and preserve continuity.
02 Subcontractor management
Working with a key supply chain partner introduced a point of potential weakness in our delivery approach. To mitigate this, our ISO 9001 approved supplier matrix has built-in vetting procedures including financial vetting. Our senior management also audited site regularly to ensure Platinum Renewables were working to our high standards of quality.
03 Integration
This project involved high levels of coordination between healthcare staff, representatives of the NHS Trust, the Synergize team, subcontractors and Grosvenor Facilities Management (GFM). Although this was a targeted solar PV installation rather than a full building redevelopment, our delivery aligned with the principles of the NHS Net Zero Building Standard.
Project success
This project was highly successful, bringing energy efficient upgrades with minimal disruption to building users.
- Energy bill saving of £1.6m over a 20-year lifecycle
- 247kW electricity produced
- Estimated to reduce emissions by approx. 50 tonnes of CO2e per year
- Completed to align with the client’s end of financial year
- 0 RIDDORs and 0 defects on completion