UK to install solar panels in prisons to save over £800,000 a year

18 / 08 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

The UK is planning to install more than 16,000 new solar panels at 19 prisons with an aim to cut 1,300 tons of carbon and save over £800,000 a year.

The installations are expected to provide 20% of each prison’s electricity, thus serving the UK’s ambitious net-zero target.

In total over 16,000 new ground mounted panels will be switched on across the prison estate, with HMPs Bullingdon, Erlestoke and Wayland lighting the way in the next few months and work ongoing to power the remaining 16 from Spring next year.

Prisons and Probation Minister, Alex Chalk, said “As we build back safer and greener from the pandemic, our prisons are playing their part in the Government’s ambitious environmental plans.”

“Alongside our wider sustainable action across the estate, including new all-electric prisons, we will ensure our jails are good for the pocket and the planet.”

This unprecedented expansion of solar energy follows the announcement in May that the government’s four new prisons – a vital building block in the drive to create 10,000 new modern prisons places that cut crime – will operate as zero-carbon in the future.

The prisons will use an all-electric design that eliminates the need for gas boilers and will in time produce net-zero emissions.

Solar panels, alongside heat pumps and more efficient lighting systems will reduce energy demand by half and cut carbon emissions by at least 85% compared to prisons already under construction.

The environmentally friendly drive accompanies wider government action to build back greener with more than £12 billion in green investment to help achieve its net zero commitment.

This will include hydrogen and carbon capture technology, greener homes, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, walking and cycling infrastructure, flood defenses and backing offshore wind to power every UK home by 2030.