Great Barr’s Green Lane reduces energy use in national challenge

• Mar. 14 by Joseph Chapman (5)

Green lane of Great Barr has cut its gas and electricity bills by nearly 25% this year in British Gas’s Green Streets challenge.

The challenge lasts a year, and elects roads and streets across the country with the word ‘green’ in them from Leeds, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Southampton, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Cardiff. The winner, this time Green Lane in Leeds, gets £50,000 to go towards improving efficiency in the local area.

Along with Leeds, Cardiff and Plymouth, Birmingham’s Green Lane was the only one to save consistently in both electricity and gas.

£30, 000 worth of technology

It is estimated by The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) that £200 per home was saved across the year. Despite these “savings”, it was reported that £30, 000 worth of energy saving technology had to be bought and installed in the houses in the first place.

The houses from each city were installed with equipment including 41 new boilers, 39 cavity wall installations, 15 new washing machines and nearly £10, 000 worth of solar technology before the challenge began and any savings were recorded.

In addition, arguably the most important city of all to be represented, London, was unable to hold down any savings across the year in both gas and electricity, and Manchester, Southampton and Edinburgh followed the city in only achieving erratic savings.

Appreciate What It Costs

When asked what their motivations were for applying to enter this challenge, a representative of the Great Barr’s Green Lane said,

“We wanted a free boiler, to be honest…. We thought it’d be good for the kids to get involved and, you know, appreciate the fact that what it costs and what can be saved.”

The IPPR added that if this Green Streets idea were to be repeated across all UK households, £6 billion worth of fuel bills would be saved.

However as previously stated, it is not as straight forward as simply claiming that. It was revealed that a large amount of money, as well as industry and governmental policies and aid would need to be implemented before this can be achieved on a larger scale.

If you want to enter your street into next year’s competition, find out how.

You can see the full report for the challenge here.