AgilityEco

Maximising the impact for green homes grant

Our client

Founded in 2013, Agility Eco is a recognised sector leader for low carbon, energy efficiency and fuel poverty services. The firm’s four services include funding, designing, managing and operating fuel poverty and energy efficiency for a range of community schemes, including the award-winning Local Energy Advice Partnership (LEAP). At the time of this project the organisation was responsible for the Green Homes Grant for 18 Local Authorities.

The Challenge

With responsibility for delivering Green Homes Grant for Local Authorities’ outputs while maximising the budget available from the central government, Agility Eco was keen to find a strategy that would quickly and effectively target homeowners who would be eligible for, and benefit from, the scheme. They needed to find a way to understand the residential landscape in each of the eighteen areas and deliver meaningful communications and interventions to encourage take-up of the grants and increase the energy performance of homes.

Our Solution

Using our LiDAR and GIS analysis technology we assessed every rooftop and predicted the levels of solar radiation for each property at 30-minute intervals, while also factoring in environmental characteristics such as shading effects on solar radiation levels. Using computer vision, we then analysed each roof to ascertain which had sufficient space for a simple multi-panel installation. Using property data, we excluded all buildings where the roof was not privately owned by the property freeholder such as flats and shared roofs for example. Overlaying EPC data allowed us to remove properties that already had a good energy performance before finally identifying properties in lower-income bands and who would, therefore, be eligible for the Green Homes Grant.

The Results

The results presented the 36,983 properties that scored highest on the Green Home Grants criteria, identifying 77,494kW of Solar PV opportunity that was estimated to save 16m kg of CO2 per year and energy bills savings of £5.7m. These results were spread throughout the eighteen Local Authorities to ensure fair coverage across the regions and were all linked back to the properties UPRN to ensure consistent reporting across the portfolio. Not only was the data incredibly valuable, but we also delivered this project in just three weeks. The project also provided the foundation for a long-term relationship with Agility Eco, whom we continue to work with to provide data analysis solutions for further similar schemes.