About a week ago, energy giant E.ON signed a £2.3 million ($3.65 million) renewable energy/energy efficiency deal with the city of Stoke in the UK. This deal comes as part of Stoke’s efforts to become the UK’s “first sustainable city” — quite an aim (sustainability is a popular word but no easy thing to achieve).
The money for the deal comes from the UK’s Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP), “which started in 2008 and requires 10 of the UK’s largest energy suppliers to fund and deliver energy efficiency and other low carbon measures to low income homes.”
The E.ON deal may help up to 5,000 homes (approximately 1/4 of Stoke’s homes) with such things as solar panels, external wall insulation, energy efficient boilers, and air source heat pumps.
But E.ON and Stoke have more plans and potential programs as well:
E.ON is also considering expanding the project to provide renewable energy to local businesses and is investigating building a solar plant on unused commercial or council land. Although the company counselled that the project is at the very early stages of planning.
The energy giant said that it has also committed to a long-term partnership with the council, which will see it become the first energy supplier to join a council-led low carbon task force.
As a first step in this partnership, E.ON will provide solar panels to 54 council properties by Christmas, making them eligible for payments under the feed-in tariff scheme.
Of course, all of this is good for individual residents’ pocketbooks, the city’s local economy as a whole, and the environment as well.
“The benefits of our investment in these schemes will… not only generate hundreds of pounds of savings on residents’ fuel bills but it will also have the potential to generate income over the lifetime of the programme, which can be reinvested into other forms of energy saving technology for other council tenants,” he said.
E.ON is looking to finalize similar deals in other localities across the UK soon as well.
Looks like they are doing great work to address numerous environmental problems and improve their economy at the same time over there in the UK.
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Photo Credit: .Pete. via flickr