People power: Octopus Energy creates solar street with East London community
- Octopus Energy builds solar ‘power station’ with Walthamstow community
- Solar panels installed on 13 houses in one street in just one week
- Panels to reduce residents’ bills by a third
London, 19th June, 2023 - Energy and technology group Octopus Energy has completed work on its first ever community solar energy installation in Walthamstow, East London.
Project ‘POWER STATION’, started by Walthamstow based artists Hilary Powell and Daniel Edelstyn, aims to install solar panels on as many houses as possible in one street to create their own local green power station.
The initiative lets residents generate clean electricity that benefits them and their local community, save money on their energy bills and lower their carbon footprint.
Hilary and Daniel crowdfunded £113,000 by sleeping on their rooftop and have used this to offer Lynmouth Road residents in Walthamstow subsidised solar installations via Octopus Energy.
The partnership started in June and in just one week Octopus has completed the installation of solar panels on all 13 houses that have joined the project so far with the potential to expand to 30 homes in total.
The Lynmouth road ‘power station’ has the potential to expand to 30 homes in total.
The solar panels will aim to reduce bills by a third. The houses who join the ‘POWER STATION’ will also see an average carbon reduction of 70% and help reduce costs for all bill payers by decreasing demand on the grid.
Octopus is committed to working with communities to help them use and benefit from renewable energy. The company pioneered this with its ‘Fan Club’ tariff in 2021, where customers living near a wind turbine are offered cheaper energy when the wind blows.
The vision of ‘POWER STATION’ matches Octopus Energy's commitment to building greener, fairer power and this is an opportunity for Octopus to test the viability of further community-led solar projects in the future.
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Product Officer at Octopus Energy Group, comments: "This project fills me with so much joy and pride – it’s a powerful example of the tremendous impact people can have in accelerating the green energy revolution.
“Hilary and Dan didn’t come from the energy industry, and yet they found a way to help their community move to green power and massively reduce their energy bills. We are delighted to have joined forces.”
-ENDS-
Notes to editors
Octopus Energy engineers install solar panels for Walthamstow's 'POWER STATION' project (Source: REUTERS/Anna Gordon)
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About Octopus Energy Group
Octopus Energy is a global energy and technology group, driving the affordable, green energy system of the future. Its operations span 14 countries and the entire energy value chain. The group invests in, builds and flexibly manages renewable energy, operating a £6 billion portfolio of projects – one of Europe’s largest.
Octopus serves 5.3 million customers through its retail arm, and has licensed its advanced data and machine learning platform, Kraken, to support 30 million customer accounts worldwide through licensing deals with energy companies, including EDF, E.ON and Origin Energy.
Kraken enables Octopus to drive the electrification of heat and transport through smart tariffs and innovative cleantech. Backed by pension funds, investors and energy giants, Octopus Energy Group businesses deliver cheaper, greener energy and cutting-edge tech to countries and customers worldwide.
For more information, check out our website.
About POWER STATION
The POWER STATION is a ‘show and do’ project sharing the trials and joys of a people powered, just transition with both a hyper local and growing online, national community. Led by artist and filmmaker it foregrounds the role of culture and storytelling in this whilst developing a ‘street by street’ model of empowering community action.
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