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The joint venture between the hospital and green electricity company Ecotricity will create a new milestone for the UK. Plenty of commercial organisations have up until now taken advantage of Ecotricity's unique approach to on site wind energy, but the QEH will be the very first public sector body to do so.

Under its innovative 'Merchant Windpower' scheme Ecotricity will plan, finance and build a state of the art wind turbine in the hospital grounds. The electricity generated will be fed directly to the hospital, reducing its import of conventional polluting electricity, in the process reducing the hospital's carbon emissions AND its annual electricity bill.

Dale Vince, MD Ecotricity, said:
"Our Merchant model has been around since 2001, when we built the UK's very first such project for Sainsbury's. Since then a host of commercial organisations have taken advantage of it. Household names such as Ford, The Pru, Co op bank, Michelin and B&Q are all benefiting from their own source of green generation, real carbon savings (not offsets) and lower electricity bills.

"But we're delighted to announce this very first initiative with the public sector. The QEH is blazing a trail which we believe will very soon become a well trodden path.  The public sector should be leading the way in the fight against climate change, and the biggest step that actually can be taken in that regard, is to change where electricity comes from."

Rowena Barnes, QEH Interim Chief Executive, said:
"We are fully committed to finding ways of reducing our overheads and limiting our impact on the environment. Every pound we can save on electricity costs is, potentially, another pound we can spend on the care of our patients.

"The benefit of the Merchant Windpower scheme is that there is no capital outlay for the hospital Trust, and yet we stand to make considerable savings on our annual fuel bill. The added bonus is knowing that we will be producing our own green energy, which has to be to everyone's advantage."

Merchant Wind Power
Ecotricity's Merchant Wind Power (MWP) programme builds and operates wind turbines on partner sites. Ecotricity take on all the capital costs of the project, including the turbine itself, conducting the feasibility, planning, installation, operation and maintenance of the wind turbines.

MWP partners agree to purchase the electricity from the turbine and in return receive their own dedicated supply of green energy at significantly reduced rates.

MWP provides a guarantee of "deep green electricity" for the long term. It is a genuine sustainable commitment, and is seen as an environmental signpost for the host organisation. The carbon savings are considerable as is the well deserved publicity our partners receive.

Another recent addition to the MWP programme is B&Q.  Planning permissions has been awarded for the development of a turbine at B&Q's main distribution centre with no public objections.  Ecotricity plan to have the turbine in place by December 2008.  Once up and running, each year for the next 30 years the turbine will power the whole distribution site and save over 5,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted each year - in it's lifetime that is 150,000 tonnes of CO2.