Octopus Energy has opened up its Zero Bills proposition to all housing developers.
The company will assess developers’ eligibility for the Zero Bills accreditation via its proprietary assessment model. To be eligible, new developments will need solar panels, home batteries, and heat pumps (or other forms of electrified heating). Many newbuild homes are already fitted with these clean energy technology solutions as standard.
Octopus has just launched a Zero Bills development, with housebuilder Verto, delivering 70 homes across two sites in Cornwall and Exeter. These will include multiple open market and affordable homes and the first Zero Bills retrofit properties.
Octopus has a goal to deliver 10,000 Zero Bills homes by 2025, with the aim to roll out the initiative across the UK and Europe.
Zero Bills is a proposition that allows customers to move into homes which are kitted out with green energy technology – including solar panels, home batteries and heat pumps – and with no energy bills for at least five years, guaranteed.
It’s made possible through Octopus’ proprietary technology platform, Kraken, which connects to the clean energy devices and optimises their energy usage to deliver a zero bill.
Following the success of a pilot with ilke Homes in Essex, Octopus Energy has now accredited almost 600 homes through contracts with other prominent developers. Accredited plots span affordable, shared ownership, private, and rented housing.
A further 80 developers have kick-started the accreditation process with Octopus, including several volume housebuilders. More than 1,200 homes have been submitted for assessment.
Michael Cottrell, Zero Bills Homes Director at Octopus Energy, said:
We’re on a mission to make Zero Bills the new standard for homes. 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, but 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.
Tom Carr, Co-Founder at Verto, said:
We’re thrilled to be partnering with Octopus to launch the UK’s first fully Zero Bills developments. Verto has been delivering its Zero Carbon Smart Home™ product for over a decade: combined with Zero Bills, it represents a sea-change in sustainable housing. But this is just the beginning – we have several other exciting projects in the pipeline with Octopus, and we’re proud to be at the forefront of this movement.
