British energy supplier E.ON has announced the launch of a new pilot in London who is designed to share the benefits of local solar energy.
A new solar installation, consisting of 270 solar panels on solar energy and able to generate around 100 MWh every year, will be installed in St Luke’s Church of England Voluntary help (CEVA) in Canning Town, East -London. The school, which raises more than 200 students, will benefit from the solar energy generated on location, which is approximately 50% of the school’s annual energy needs. E.on will finance, install and maintain the solar assets without prior costs for the school; The installation is set to save the school and the local community more than £ 7,000 every year.
Unique is surplus solar energy generated on the site, assigned to nearby houses at a discount percentage. Instead of installing a physical power connection, half-hour measurement data will match consumption and production, so that a credit is applied to customer accounts for the solar energy that they use.
Ramona Vlasiu, Chief Operating Officer at E.ON, stated that the pilot: “The aim is to prove the concept that sharing energy and environmental benefits yields, but we have to change the rules to start the expansion of such projects to communities throughout the country”.
E.on also calls for broader policy changes on the prices of energy in the UK. The utility notes that environmental taxes that are applied to both fossil fuel driven and green energy increase the costs of greener energy consumption and prevent communities from switching to cleaner energy.
E.on argues that social and environmental taxes must be removed for projects that keep energy in the local area to support investments in these projects, because the electricity that remains in the local network naturally lowers the costs of transmission. Debates about sharing costs have recently been a hot topic in the UK, because Energiereregulator Vangem recently launched a call to make evidence in proposals to Reform the way in which the costs of the energy network are shared.
Vlasiu added: “The energy transition is about energy to make more affordable and more sustainable, and through our dedication to lead the transition to new energy in a way that works for everyone, we prove that community projects can lower the costs for many people, as well as reducing carbon and increasing the VK energy teacher.”
The right pastor Roger Morris, the bishop of Colchester and chairman of the diocese of Chelmsford’s Diocesan Board of Education, added: “By loading extra costs on the costs of electricity, we unfortunately made the fuel of the future more expensive than our use of that energy for our use.”
