NHS Procurement Guide for Hospital Solar
Procurement is where hospital solar timelines are won or lost. This guide covers the framework routes, when direct award beats mini-competition, and what to put in the evaluation criteria.
Why frameworks are the default route
NHS trusts can run a full open tender for a solar installation, but most use a public sector framework instead. Frameworks pre-qualify suppliers for capability, financial standing and compliance, which shortens procurement considerably compared with an open tender. Vehicles commonly used for solar include frameworks run by Crown Commercial Service, NHS Shared Business Services and ESPO; check the current lot structure of each to confirm it covers on-site renewables, and ask your procurement team which they already hold access agreements for.
Framework procurement matters for funding as well as speed. Funding programmes carry spend deadlines and ask for a credible delivery programme: the 2026/27 Great British Energy round required projects to be finished by 31 March 2027 (HEFMA). An application that says "framework direct award, contractor identified, programme agreed" reads better than one that says "procurement route to be determined", and it removes the most common cause of grant under-spend.
Direct award or mini-competition?
Direct award appoints a named supplier from the framework without further competition, where framework terms permit. It is fastest — typically 4–8 weeks to contract — and appropriate where a feasibility study has already defined the scheme, where timescales are grant-driven, or where a supplier holds specific site knowledge from earlier phases. Mini-competition invites several framework suppliers to bid against the Trust's specification. It takes 10–16 weeks, suits larger or multi-site schemes, and gives the Trust market-tested pricing to evidence value for money in the business case. Both are legitimate; the mistake is defaulting to mini-competition for a 300 kW community hospital scheme where the competition costs more in programme delay than it could ever save in price.
What to evaluate — beyond price per kW
Hospital solar bids should be scored on the things that go wrong in hospitals, not just capital cost. A sensible evaluation matrix weights: HTM 03-01 infection control methodology and evidence of live-site healthcare delivery; HTM 06-01 electrical design competence and Authorising Engineer (Electrical) engagement; DBS clearance coverage across the install workforce; yield modelling quality (PVSyst files the Trust can independently verify, not summary spreadsheets); warranty structure, including insurance-backed workmanship cover; and the O&M offer — monitoring, response times, and panel cleaning regimes priced over 25 years rather than left to a future negotiation. Price matters, but a £20,000 saving on capex is poor compensation for a contractor who has never worked above a live ward.
PFI estates: check the contract first
Many UK hospitals operate under PFI contracts, and on those sites procurement starts with the contract, not the framework. The questions that determine everything: who pays the energy bill, who owns roof alterations, and how does the PFI agreement allocate benefit from energy savings? Where the PFI partner carries energy risk, the savings flow to them, and the workable structure is usually co-investment with savings shared. The procurement route follows from that analysis, and skipping it is the most expensive shortcut in hospital solar.
Where a feasibility fits
A feasibility study can be commissioned before procurement, structured so any compliant contractor could deliver it and the trust's procurement position stays clean. The funding page covers the current routes, the process page shows the delivery sequence, and the costs page gives the illustrative figures evaluation panels find useful when sense-checking bids.