Energy efficiency
Announcements prior to September 2017, including this announcement, occurred under previous ownership.
04 August 2015
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has become the first local authority in England to secure finance from the UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) to replace its existing streetlights with lower energy alternatives.
GIB has agreed to provide funding of £8.2m alongside a grant of £5.1m from the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of a £13.5m programme of refurbishments that will see 14,000 lanterns and around 4,000 other pieces of illuminated street furniture, replaced with energy-saving LED alternatives.
The agreement also covers the renewal of ageing streetlighting columns and the installation of a central management system (CMS) that will allow the council to manage remotely its lanterns across the borough. The CMS will also improve monitoring and metering, allowing the council to manage its lighting estate more effectively.
The council believes that the installation of LED streetlighting will more than pay for itself through savings of around £25m over 25 years. The lights are expected to use at least 55 per cent less energy than existing lights and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 16,500 tonnes during their lifetime.
The energy saved would be equivalent to the total electricity consumed by almost 1,000 homes.
The scheme qualified for the GIB’s Green Loan, which offers UK local authorities a low, fixed-rate financial arrangement over a period of up to 30 years. It has been specifically designed to finance public sector energy efficiency projects where repayments are less than the savings realised.
GIB signed a similar agreement earlier this year with Glasgow City Council and is in discussions with a number of other local authorities and public bodies about financing further streetlighting and low carbon and renewables projects.
Ed Northam
Head of Investment Banking at the Green Investment Bank
Councillor Martin Terry
Executive Member for Public Protection, Waste & Transport at Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Gregor Paterson-Jones
Managing director of Energy Efficiency at the Green Investment Bank
A report released by GIB in February 2014 – ‘Low energy streetlighting: making the switch’ – estimated that the UK could save £200m every year by replacing every one of its 7.4 million streetlights with low-energy LEDs.
GIB and its legal advisors Shepherd and Wederburn LLP have standardised the Green Loan investment process to save the public sector time and money in agreeing a financing package for energy efficiency projects.
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