Octopus Energy has partnered with housebuilder gs8, which focuses on sustainable building, to develop a ‘Zero Bills’ housing development in Thornwood, Epping.
The 113-home site is the housebuilder’s largest to date, and it is also the biggest development of Zero Bills homes. In order to promise no energy bills to the households at the Epping site, the houses are fitted with green technology including a heat pump and solar panels.
Other Zero Bills housing initiatives have seen the houses fitted with battery storage, but the development built by gs8 will instead feature a centralised battery and microgrid, which Octopus said will allow solar to be “seamlessly shared” between households.
Gs8’s building practice follows zero waste principles and stores more carbon in the homes than is needed to build and maintain them. The first properties will be ‘launched’ in April.
Nigel Banks, Octopus Energy’s Zero Bills director, commented: “Our partnership with gs8 to deliver a microgrid community is all about delivering a truly transformative solution that sets a new standard for affordable, eco-friendly living.”
Octopus has already accredited well over 1,000 ‘Zero Bills’ homes through contracts with a number of prominent developers.
Octopus Energy’s investment platform sells out first renewables projects
After it launched last week, Octopus’ investment programme ‘the Collective’ has sold out. The initiative launched with two wind turbines in Yorkshire and Wales—both sites are part of Octopus’ ‘Fan Club’ scheme, which notifies users local to wind generation plants when turbines are active and rewards them for scheduling energy-intensive activities during these periods.
The turbines, in Halifax and Caerphilly, offer an annual target return of up to 6% with an investment term of three years. Octopus will underwrite initial investments in the two wind farms to encourage involvement. It plans to add “several” more renewables projects across the UK to the platform.
There is a minimum investment requirement of £25 but, since there are no fees and the Collective is free to join, all returns go to the investor.
As a result of the demand, Octopus has now launched a campaign called ‘Pass the Power’ to give other green energy projects the ability to register their interest in listing on ‘the Collective’ platform.
Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Collective explained: “With our ‘Pass the Power’ campaign, we’re now also inviting other projects to register their interest in listing on our platform to unleash even more public ownership of renewables. By adding more projects onto ‘the Collective’, we can empower even more people to take part in the clean energy revolution.”
