Octopus Energy enters solar installation market

Octopus Energy is adding domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) to its catalogue of home energy tech installation, helping to slash customers’ electricity bills and create a multitude of new green jobs.

Octopus Energy’s engineering arm, Octopus Energy Services, which already installed electric vehicle chargers, air-source heat pumps and smart meters, is now also installing solar panels.

The company is aiming to quickly ramp up the rollout, targeting 5,000 installations in 2023. The new service is launching across the Midlands and the South, with a view to expand it nationwide within the first year.

In addition to the solar panel installation service, Octopus customers will be able to choose from a range of solar batteries, allowing them to store the green energy they produce and sell it back to the grid when it’s convenient for them.

They will have access to the UK’s highest-paying energy export tariffs:

• Agile Outgoing links a customer’s payments to wholesale energy prices that day. It is the best value export tariff on the market. Between September 2021 and September 2022, customers on this tariff were paid 34p/kWh on average, with payments going up to £1.29/kWh in the last year.
• Fixed Outgoing pays the best fixed rate export prices in the country. Customers are paid 15p/kWh exported back to the grid – three times more than any other UK energy supplier (the next best tariff offers 5p/kWh).

Customers with solar panels and a solar battery who choose the Agile Outgoing tariff could save up to 90% on their electricity bills compared to customers on a standard variable tariff.

To enable this feat, Octopus is planning to create nearly 200 new green jobs in their solar division, ranging from engineers and surveyors to tech and operations support, and based across the UK.

Octopus Energy’s stable of installation technology and proprietary tech now allows eligible properties to exist without energy bills. By installing solar PV, a solar battery and a heat pump, houses can become ‘Zero Bills’ properties.

‘Zero Bills’ is an Octopus certification that means homeowners do not pay a single energy bill. This was trialled with an initial pilot with Ilke Homes in Essex, where 22 eligible homes are sold with the option of being ‘Zero Bills’, with the aim to increase this to 10,000 homes by 2030.

John Szymik, CEO of Octopus Energy Services, comments, “Given the success we have had in scaling and installing huge swathes of smart, green home energy tech, we are champing at the bit to begin installing the last piece of the puzzle, solar photovoltaic.

“If more homes in the UK produce clean, green solar energy, we will be able to accelerate the energy transition and bring down system prices for everybody by lowering system costs.

“In true Octopus style, we’ll focus on reducing solar installation times down to record levels, hoping to soon make solar panels affordable for everyone.”