How E.ON is helping homes, businesses and cities transition to sustainable energy
Whether helping individuals or families in their homes or supporting a whole city in need of help turning from fossil fuels towards energy-efficient, planet-saving techniques, nothing is too big or too small for E.ON.
Simon Duncan, Director of sustainable solutions for business at the renewable energy provider, says the work helping the public on that journey begins even before people leave school.
STEM is vital
E.ON is sponsoring the Sustainable Schools category for the Edinburgh Local Hero Awards 2022, sponsored by the Evening News.
Simon believes promoting science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects in schools is essentials if “the future innovators, scientists and engineers in energy are going to be ready to take the country on a transition journey”.
Since 2018 the company has invested more than £2 million in creating more than 600 apprenticeships, including 22-degree apprenticeships, an alternative to the traditional work or education decision faced by school-leavers.
As well as supporting tomorrow’s talent, E.ON has its own inclusive talent networks where all colleagues can access learning and development opportunities. One of those talent networks, Fast Forward, aims to support women’s career progression and over the last 12 months has seen a large increase in promotion rates of members, going from 5% to over 27%
Helping individuals, families, businesses and cities
E.ON employs more than 70,000 people across 13 countries so has a lot of expertise it can call upon to help its 50 million customers.
Simon says: “Obviously, the first thing on everyone’s mind is the energy crisis and it’s more important than ever that we move to more sustainable energy sources – it’s a solution to the problem of global gas prices as well as tackling the climate crisis.”
At home, the company has installed more than four million smart meters across the UK, allowing households to better understand how much energy they are using, and why.
In turn, the company can help people access funding from government or social grant schemes for help with bills or to reduce energy consumption by taking actions such as improving home insulation or replacing gas boilers with super-efficient heat pumps. https://www.eonenergy.com/sustainable-homes.html
On a business level, E.ON helps companies to improve the energy efficiency of their operations in a range of ways. This includes a journey to visualise, optimise and decarbonise business sites, with the introduction of digital energy efficiency solutions like Optimum, a cloud-based energy platform that provides energy intelligence that can help to reduce a business’s energy consumption and costs, or on-site renewable generation such as wind turbines, heat pumps, solar panels, or electric vehicle charging points. https://www.eonenergy.com/business/net-zero-partnerships.html
At the city-wide scale Simons says much can be achieved as bigger challenges mean bigger solutions. These can include district heating schemes which generate heat in one centralised location which is distributed through a pipeline network to homes and commercial properties. He adds: “Our cities offer a way of speeding the move to a greener future, providing an opportunity to solve the problems of a large population at the same time, engaging a wide community and redesigning work, leisure, shopping, and lower emissions transport and mobility.”
Scotland and E.ON
E.ON is proud to be supporting Scotland’s aim to be net zero by 2045 by helping businesses, local communities and local authorities to transform the way they use energy.
The company is helping Diageo develop a solar farm at its Leven packaging site which will see more than 8,000 solar panels installed, generating up to 22 per cent of the site’s annual electricity needs, reaching up to 60 per cent over summer months. https://www.eonenergy.com/About-eon/media-centre/diageo-picks-eon-for-major-solar-farm/
And, working with The Highland Council as part of the Home Energy Efficiency Programme for Scotland: Area Based Scheme (HEEPS:ABS) more than £40 million has been invested in revitalising ageing homes while cutting carbon emissions, lowering energy bills and reducing fuel poverty in the area. E.ON has delivered more than 1,500 energy saving measures to 1,300 homes in the Highlands alone, with people seeing annual energy savings of up to £460 per year and with lifetime carbon emissions savings of more than 44 million tonnes.
There’s more
To find out more about E.ON’s work go to https://www.eonenergy.com/