FAQ

1) Q. What is E.ON doing to reduce carbon emissions from its power stations?

A. E.ON has committed to reducing the carbon intensity by 10% by 2012 in the UK, having already reduced the rate by 20% since 1990.

We recently announced plans to build two new supercritical units at our Kingsnorth coal-fired power station, a £1bn investment that will see a reduction in carbon emissions of almost two million tonnes a year compared to existing units.

E.ON already operates 20 wind farms across the UK, both offshore and onshore. We’re currently building an offshore wind farm at Robin Rigg in the Solway Firth, which will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the UK. We’re also part of a consortium developing the London Array project – an offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary that will produce enough electricity for a quarter of Greater London’s homes. This will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.

We are also working on projects such as the UK’s largest dedicated biomass power station at Steven’s Croft, Lockerbie, wave energy generation off the North Cornwall coast and a recently announced programme with Lunar Energy to develop a tidal stream project of up to 8MW off the west coast of the UK. This project will be one of the largest tidal stream energy plants of its kind in the world, capable of producing enough power for up to 5,000 homes.

2) Q. How much is E.ON investing in renewable energy sources?

A. E.ON plans to spend £1bn over the next five years to fund renewable energy sources. For further details on what we are doing click here.

3) Q. What is E.ON doing to aid energy efficiency for businesses?

A. As a responsible and leading energy supplier, we are committed to working with our customers in the area of energy efficiency. Experience shows that businesses could make energy savings of 10% to 20% by using some basic low or no-cost energy efficiency measures.

We’ve developed an online energy efficiency toolkit to help businesses implement some basic energy efficiency measures. This toolkit includes downloadable action plans and case studies, an energy efficiency calculator and access to our energy management service.

E.ON also sponsors the National Energy Foundation’s Energy Efficiency Accreditation Award. It’s the UK’s only independent award scheme that recognises achievements in reducing energy usage by leading industrial and commercial organisations across the UK.

We also provide customers with access to an energy efficiency advice telephone line, where a team of Carbon Trust accredited specialists can advise businesses on implementing detailed energy efficiency measures.

Our Sustainable Energy Solutions team has been set up to look at new technologies such as biomass boilers, micro-wind turbines, ground source heat pumps and many others.

This is only the start. Over the course of our relationship with Ellen we will introduce a number of measures and propositions which will help businesses to achieve their carbon targets.

4) Q. Why is energy efficiency such an important area for E.ON?

A. Energy efficiency is an important area for E.ON because as the largest integrated power and gas company in the UK, we have a responsibility to take this issue seriously. So we’re committed to working with our business customers to provide energy efficiency advice and energy management solutions.

5) Q. Why did E.ON choose to work with Ellen MacArthur?

A. E.ON chose to work with Ellen MacArthur to help promote and improve the take up of energy efficiency advice to our business. Ellen is passionate about reducing the impact we have on the planet, both through our businesses and as individuals. As someone who relies so heavily on the environment and with a determination to learn the best ways to make her business more energy efficient, we thought she would be able to help us change energy.

6) Q. What is E.ON’s partnership with Ellen MacArthur?

A. E.ON’s B2B Business is working together with Ellen MacArthur to look at ways to make her own business, OC Group, more energy efficient. Now we want to bring our expertise together with Ellen’s own experience to make UK businesses more energy efficient. The first step is for E.ON is to look at what can be done to make Ellen’s business, Offshore Challenge, more efficient at managing energy. It’s a close working relationship, not to be confused with a partnership in the legal sense.

As Ellen goes on this journey with E.ON to learn more about sustainability in business, Ellen will be helping to communicate her findings to the rest of E.ON’s business customers and the wider environment, sharing practical ways companies can take action to help combat climate change.

It’s all of our responsibility to deliver this change. Working with over half a million of our business customers we want to ensure that every business has access to the tools they need to start making changes.