From dirty air to cleaner streets: tackling the UK’s silent killer

It doesn’t scream for attention, but air pollution is one of the UK’s deadliest threats. It kills – quietly, and at scale. In fact, an estimated 30,000 deaths in the UK this year alone will be linked to the quality of the air in our streets. That’s more than traffic collisions and drug-related deaths combined.

And the impacts are becoming harder to ignore. New research reveals higher levels of air pollution in a region are directly linked to cancer-driving DNA mutations – found especially in people who have never smoked. Put simply: the air we breathe is becoming a public health emergency.

But we’re not powerless. Transport – the cars, vans and lorries that keep our cities moving – is the single biggest source of nitrogen dioxide pollution in the UK. That means the same systems driving this crisis can also be redesigned to solve it. Because the root cause of toxic air is often the same as the root cause of climate change: how we power our journeys, heat our homes and fuel our cities.

That’s why at E.ON, we’re working across the UK to clean up energy and transport – not just to lower emissions, but to protect public health.

Powering the EV revolution

We’re proud to be part of the transformation — installing EV chargers nationwide, from our first E.ON Drive hub in Wales, to new ultra-rapid sites in Scotland. Together, these hubs will deliver 12.6MW of charging capacity – enough to power 40,000 UK homes – and can simultaneously charge up to 42 vehicles, delivering up to 150 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

We’re also helping households to go electric with thousands of home chargers, all hooked up to smart EV tariffs that make charging cheaper and greener.

And it’s not just cars. Businesses, logistics and freight are going electric too – and we’re helping them get there:

• We’re building a pan-European eTruck charging network with MAN Truck & Bus, with new UK hubs already underway in Stockton-on-Tees, Manchester, Gateshead and Swindon
• Our smart fleet solutions help businesses electrify their operations with intelligent energy management and grid integration

On the residential front, we’ve now installed around 8,000 home chargers and 2,000 for small businesses – enabling more than 50 million miles of EV driving in 2024 alone.

And innovation doesn’t stop at the charging cable. Together with BMW Group, we’ve launched Germany’s first commercial Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) solution for private customers. Thanks to bidirectional charging, electric cars like the BMW iX3 can actively support the energy system – storing power when it’s plentiful and feeding it back to the grid when demand peaks. For drivers, that’s up to 14,000 kilometres of free driving every year; for the energy system, it’s flexible storage that supercharges the transition to renewables.

Closer to home, in Coventry, we’ve partnered with the City Council on a 15-year initiative to decarbonise the city – rolling out hundreds of public EV charging points to make cleaner travel easier for residents and visitors alike. And we’re doing the same in other urban areas, supporting local authorities to expand charging networks and accelerate the switch to zero-emission vehicles.

Beyond transport: cleaning up the energy system

And it doesn’t stop with transport. Across the UK, we’re transforming how communities power their homes, workplaces and hospitals:

• Uskmouth, in South Wales, once a coal-fired power station, is being reborn as a state-of-the-art battery storage facility with Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners. The two 115MW storage units being installed could power 35 million smartphones – transformed into a flexible asset that strengthens the grid, balances supply and demand and helps manage the cost of energy for customers.
• At Silvertown, in London’s Royal Docks, where rising temperatures and poor air quality are part of daily life (not helped by being just a stone’s throw from City Airport!), we’re rolling out the UK’s first E.ON ectogrid™. This revolutionary district energy network will serve more than 6,000 homes and businesses by balancing their heating and cooling needs – cutting emissions by up to 88% compared to traditional gas boilers. In dense urban areas, systems like ectogrid™ aren’t just efficient – they’re life-enhancing.
• Hidden behind a historic façade near Smithfield Market, Citigen’s underground energy centre powers more than 13,000 homes and offices actoss the City of London with zero-carbon heating and cooling, thanks to deep boreholes and recycled heat. Not only does it avoid polluting emissions, it also prevents excess heat from escaping into an already sweltering city.
• And in Nottingham, we’re working with Queen’s Medical Centre to power one of the UK’s busiest hospitals with clean, renewable energy. Our 4MW heat pump system – drawing the natural heat of the earth from 64 boreholes deep underground – is part of a new £15 million energy system that delivers the reliability the NHS demands with a fraction of the carbon footprint.

These are more than engineering projects. They’re examples of how infrastructure can become a frontline defence against poor air quality and its devastating health effects. But if we’re serious about tackling the UK’s silent killer, we need more than isolated innovation – we need joined-up thinking.

Cleaning energy, transport and public health is one interconnected mission. That means better policy alignment between government departments. It means prioritising low-emission heating and cooling in new developments. And it means recognising that when we invest in clean infrastructure – from EV charging to clean hospitals – we’re not just fighting climate change. We’re saving lives.