Octopus Energy Tech Summit 2026
"The top announcement in my book at yesterday's Octopus Energy Tech Summit: plug in home batteries! I want a pink one."
Our chair, Helen, was lucky again to win a free ticket to the 2026 event in London:
It was a very hot day at the start of a sweltering week. The line-up of speakers was impressive and it was great to know one of the panelists, Philip Steel, who spoke about how 'smart' variable and time-of-use tariffs have saved customers £1Bn! Phil was also at the Community Energy England conference the previous week supporting the Younity team. The same panel covered Zero-bill homes, where customers can be promised 5 or 10 years of no energy bills for the smart homes using energy saving technologies.
The astronaut Tim Peake gave us the vision of the earth as a whole, and the wonders of the ecosytems it supports, and the very delicate, thin layer of atmosphere that keeps everything on earth alive.
Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of the Climate Change Committee,and Camilla Born from Electrify Britain looked at the upcoming Carbon Budget. Factoring in things like the reduction in health care costs from reduced vehicle emmissions and cleaner air as we transition to EVs means that electrification and renewable energy pay-back on investment even more quickly, and keep on paying-back for years to come.
The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, was inspiring in his unwavering principles and belief in the power of trust.
The CEO of Octopus, Greg Jackson, announced new plug-in batteries:
The Nook: A compact, shoebox-sized 2kWh battery that you literally just plug straight into a standard wall socket. No drilling, no landlord permission. It stores cheap off-peak energy and can be stacked .
"You can stack up to five of them to get 10 kilowatt hours, even if you don't have solar panels, they'll pay for themselves in two or three years, and thereafter just keep saving money, because they'll be able to use the cheapest electricity on the grid to charge up, and you'll be able to use it in your home, and if you do have solar panels, it should be an absolute no-brainer."
Nook Colossus: A wall-mounted system installed by Octopus engineers, available in a 5kWh version and 10kWh version, which will stackable up to 30kWh.
"It's 10kWh and you can stack up to three of them. It'll be about a third cheaper than the best known battery brands, and all of these batteries will come with Octopus Intelligence built in, so they'll optimise immediately against smart tariffs to start saving you money."
It's great that a number of Community Energy advocates were there, including John Taylor from Community Energy England. Hopefully next year we can get Community Energy on the agenda!
