Octopus has partnered with housebuilder The Hill Group to develop 89 homes with no energy bills for a minimum of five years in Essex.
The houses will be equipped with a number of low-carbon technologies, including heat pumps, solar panels, and home storage batteries. The combined capacity of these technologies is set to exceed the energy requirements of each home and will be integrated and optimised by Octopus’ Kraken platform.
According to Octopus, the batteries installed will either be 9.5kWh or 13.5kWh batteries, depending on the size of the home. The number of solar panels will also vary (between 18 and 24) in accordance with the property’s size.
Built at Hollymead Square in Newport Essex, the properties will include two to five bedroom houses and two bedroom bungalows, with residents guaranteed to pay no energy bills for a minimum of five years.
Of the 89 houses, 64 will be sold to the open market with 25 set aside for affordable rent and shared ownership by the social housing provider, Clarion House Group.
Earlier this year, Octopus began building three ‘zero bills’ homes in Stafford in the West Midlands, to go to market this month. The energy company said it hopes to have built 50,000 zero bills homes globally by 2025.
