Birmingham In New Green Deal Measure
The Birmingham City Council chose Carillion Energy Services for its partner in the Green Deal property improvement work. By 2020, 60,000 homes around the city will have their properties outfitted with some kind of energy efficient measure like new boilers or insulation. It’s believed that the initial work will be around £600 million.
However, an extension of the wider West Midlands areas could increase the work worth of up to £1.5 billion over an eight-year span. Birmingham will be the first local municipality to retain a Green Deal delivery partner. The Department of Energy and Climate Change provided the city with £2.6 million to jumpstart its activity around the city. Birmingham’s council wants to get another £3.2 million in matching funds.
Under the Green Deal initiative, improvement payments will be recovered through installments on energy bills. For homes where the estimated savings on bills will be equal to or more than the cost for improvement work will be eligible for the program. For homes that fail to qualify may still be entitled through the Energy Company Obligation. The ECO is a fund that was developed with money from the energy firms to assist people who have hard to treat homes.
About 60,000 homes and non-domestic buildings will be refurbished, according to the Birmingham Energy Savers program. This will lead to a creation of 250 jobs and assist in a 60 percent emission reduction of carbon dioxide by 2026.
What Carillion Will Do Under The Partnership
Carillion will also unveil a program to install the EcoPod heating system that will address the hot water and heating issues of tower blocks around the city to decrease the fuel capacity.
The company has the chance to spread the endowment of energy efficient services to 35 other public sector organizations and councils in the West Midlands region who were initially a part of the original procurement notice and can take advantage of the services under the framework agreement.
Richard Howson, chief executive of Carillion, said the bid with Birmingham was the first of several huge projects that the company is bidding on or will be bidding on under both the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation programs. He said the company looks to play an active part in developing the market.
Nigel Taylor, Carillion’s managing director, said Birmingham Energy Savers is unique and they’re glad to be named a partner. He said the company’s bid strength is a measure of how they’ll work with communities, small businesses, social enterprises and the supply chain to bring a local answer that has real social and economic value for Birmingham.
He said the company is committed to creating and sustaining approximately 360 jobs through its investment and skills training. Taylor said the company wants to encourage its business partners to invest in a number of green energy facilities and bring more job opportunities to the region.
Birmingham Green Deal Benefits
James McKay, Birmingham’s city councilor said the decision is a major milestone for the city’s green ambitions and validates that environmental agendas and social justice can work together. He said citizens should see a reduction in their energy bills by nearly £300 every year. It would also generate jobs and work to reduce the carbon emissions the city produces.
According to Greg Barker, energy minister, the city council is taking initiative to decrease fuel poverty and make the city greener.
The Green Deal is important to the city because it’ll help leaders attain ambitious targets, allow people to attain energy efficient upgrades and save themselves money in the long run. The funding that’s been provided to Birmingham will get the Green Deal going. He said he was excited with the plans the council has in place in regards to transforming buildings and saving energy.
The 5 Main Projects Are:
- District energy installation – Bring heating facility to a community building that can deliver excessive capacity to surrounding domestic premises.
- Industrial estate retrofit – Bring energy efficient retrofit to 10 non-domestic, council owned properties.
- Work together with landlords – choose demonstrators to demonstrate Green Deal benefits.
- Community Green Deal – With together with community organizations to bring 120 homeowners and 10 public buildings installations.
- Tower block offer – provide solid wall insulation for those hard to treat blocks, which may include replacing an out of date heating system.
Carillion was among many other companies to get the deal including Amey, Enterprise and Mark Group.