UK’s first solar powered, bus shelter defib cabinet installed in Staffordshire village

Creswell Parish Council partnered with non-profit AED Donate to lead the project to place a defibrillator in the village, but with no public building or easy access to an electricity supply, heating an outdoor public cabinet was proving to be difficult. Turtle’s uniquely designed wind and solar powered defib cabinet was considered, although there was no perfect, central location in the village with sufficient space.

At the same time, a new bus shelter for the village was being sourced and councillors questioned whether the two projects could be combined. Turtle immediately seized the engineering challenge and commenced a feasibility study for AED Donate before developing a design whereby solar panels could be installed on the bus shelter’s roof.

By working closely with Turtle, the Council’s selected bus shelter manufacturer, Shelutions Urban Furniture, was able to adapt its design and align with the defib cabinet technology’s specifications, including the insertion of internal electrical cabling.

Mike Dowson, Founder and Managing Director at Turtle Medical, commented: “We’re no stranger to a challenge at Turtle, so I jumped at the chance to engineer a bespoke solution for AED Donate and Creswell Parish Council. I’m thankful to Shelutions’ for embracing a collaborative process, which has resulted in us having a fully integrated bus shelter defibrillator cabinet powered by three solar panels. These are larger capacity panels when compared to our regular model, which will generate enough electricity to keep the medical equipment heated without the wind turbine element, even on dark winter days. I couldn’t be happier with the result and this new type of installation could be adopted in more places, to safeguard more people from cardiac arrest.”

Margaret Harford, Chairperson at Creswell Parish Council, added: “We have wanted the residents of Creswell to gain peace of mind from a local defibrillator for some time, but we couldn’t solve the problem of where to put an accessible cabinet and how to keep it heated. AED Donate has been extremely supportive and facilitated this exciting solution with Turtle and Shelutions. Creswell is certainly proud to be the home of the UK’s first bus stop defibrillator.”

Mick Nelson, Managing Director at Shelutions Urban Furniture, said: “While we routinely make bespoke passenger waiting facilities, it was a surprise to get the enquiry about installing a defib cabinet and solar panels on a bus shelter. We were delighted to collaborate to get design just right for Creswell Parish Council. This shelter replaced one we originally manufactured and installed about 20 years ago, which makes it even more special. It is an inspirational idea and we hope to work with AED Donate and Turtle again on future custom-made commissions.”