The City of London Corporation has announced its intention to power the UK capital's financial district – which is home to the Stock Exchange and the Bank of England – using electricity sources only from renewables from October 2018.
The City Corporation manages a number of services across London, including social housing, academies, wholesale markets and 11,000 acres of green space. It already has renewable energy operations in place at a number of its sites, including Hamstead Heath and Epping Forest, but is reported to source only 0.1 percent of its energy needs from renewables. That's about to radically change.
A proposal backed by members of the Policy and Resources Committee will see the generation of electricity on sites owned by the Corporation (by installing solar panels on Corporation-owned buildings, for example), investment in renewable energy production such as wind and solar outside of London and the purchase of green electricity that's already available on the market.
"Sourcing 100 percent renewable energy will make us cleaner and greener, reducing our grid reliance and running some of our buildings on zero carbon electricity," said the Committee's Catherine McGuinness. "We are always looking at the environmental impact of our work and hope that we can be a beacon to other organizations to follow suit. By generating our own electricity and investing in renewables, we are doing our bit to help meet international and national energy targets."
Other recent environment-friendly initiatives from the City Corporation include the installation of EV charging points in the Barbican, and a trial of the UK's first full electric refuse truck.
Source: City of London
