The first UK homes with zero energy bills are being built as part of a new trial to move households away from fossil fuels.
Octopus Energy has confirmed it has joined forces with housebuilder Ilke Homes to develop the renewable home scheme. It comes as energy bills are predicted to rise to £2,800 later this year and £2,900 next year.
The homes will come equipped with an air source heat pump, solar panels and battery storage technology.
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But while the low-carbon technologies will save households money in the long-run, buyers will have to pay an extra £8,000 to £9,000 when they purchase their new house.
Octopus and Ilke say each "zero bills" household will save over £2,000 on energy costs per year based on current prices. It is not yet known when prices will start to fall again, reports The Mirror.
Homeowners will be signed up to a special Octopus tariff and will pay no bills unless they use more than 10MWh of energy.
Giles Carter, Ilke’s chief executive, estimates this is treble the standard annual usage of a household.
The homes will also be equipped with battery technology to store any excess green electricity the solar panels generate. By using a battery, the home will be able to store this energy for later use.
If the solar panels fail to generate enough energy, the homes can still draw energy to use without it affecting their bills.
The companies are piloting the project with a pair of two-bedroom, semi-detached family homes in Essex. These form part of a wider 153-home scheme, branded Hope Green.
The first homes will be ready to move in over the coming weeks, and there are plans to expand the scheme to more than 10,000 homes by 2030.
Giles Carter, CEO at Ilke Homes, said: “Our strategic partnership with Octopus Energy Group is the next milestone on our ilke ZERO journey.
“The premise of this partnership is to both empower consumers, who are faced with one of the worst cost-of-living crises in decades, and demonstrate that net-zero and construction can work hand in hand.”
Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “This breakthrough partnership debunks a long-standing myth – that cleaner energy will mean higher bills for consumers. Instead, people living in these homes won’t be paying for energy at all.
“This is yet another demonstration that clean energy is cheap energy, and the best answer to the fossil fuel crisis is accelerating the transition to renewables.”
The update from Octopus and Ilke comes as the boss of Ofgem warned the energy price cap could rise to £2,800 in October.
Energy consultant Cornwall Insight forecasts the price cap will hit £2,879 from October before rising to £2,907 in January, under new rules that mean the cap can be adjusted every three months.
The price cap for those on default tariffs paying by direct debit increased by £693 from £1,277 to £1,971 last month.
It covers around 22 million households and is linked to wholesale energy costs, which are going up due to global supply issues and the war in Ukraine.
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