Britain’s second largest energy supplier has found a new partner in its dream to deliver 10,000 new energy bill-free homes before 2025.
Octopus Energy is teaming up with award-winning sustainable housebuilder Verto to bring forward more developments in its ‘Zero Bills’ campaign.
‘Zero Bills’ is a world’s-first smart proposition, enabling customers to move into homes which are fully kitted out with green energy technology – including solar panels, home batteries and heat pumps – For at least five years, Octopus & its partners guarantee no energy bills will be necessary.
After accrediting 600 ‘bill-free’ homes last year with other developers in Essex, the supplier says it is now extending the scheme to Verto and to all other British home builder meeting its standards.
The duo will collaborate on commissioning 70 homes in Exeter & Cornwall, fitted with high-grade insulation, on-site PV generation and in-home batteries, ensuring no purchase of energy is necessary.
Octopus says its pilot schemes have proved that existing in-home technologies are enough to outfit properties so that occupants need pay nothing for extra energy.
The homes will be managed by Kraken, Octopus’ proprietory energy management software platform. It will balance generation sources such as heat pumps and PV panels against storage and load from household appliances, ensuring no external bill need be levied.
Homes currently account for 13% of Britain’s carbon emissions, Octopus observes.
Besides Verto, a further 80 home development firms have entered its accreditation process, including several volume housebuilders.
More than 1,200 homes have been submitted already for assessment under the Zero Bills initiative. Accredited plots span affordable homes, shared ownership, private and rented housing.
Octopus uses its proprietary Kraken software platform to assess buildings’ eligibility. To qualify, new developments must be fitted with solar panels, home batteries, and forms of electrified heating such as heat pumps. Many newbuild homes are already fitted with these clean energy solutions as standard.
Zero energy bills benefit sellers of new properties, Octopus argues.
“We’re on a mission to make ‘Zero Bills’ the new standard for homes”, said Michael Cottrell, director of the supplier’s initiative. “By partnering with developers like Verto, we’re scaling this efficient green technology to homes everywhere while driving down costs for consumers.
“The technology is already proven. Through Octopus’ proprietary offering we can now bring it all together and optimise it in new houses. Together with forward-thinking developers, we can make energy bills and home emissions a thing of the past.”
Read here for more information.
