This is a radical innovation that offers the potential to deploy solar at net-zero cost. This, in turn, has the potential to unlock private financing of photovoltaic panels across blocks in both the social and private housing sectors. That would mean no more waiting for the next round of funding or competition for subsidy. Instead, we can build a revenue stream, not a cost centre, for housing providers.
While our project with Hackney is a pilot, it points the way to a methodology where we build a new energy system roof by roof rather than waiting for a grand central plan. This is a potential net-zero cost approach that can’t but be attractive for anyone under budgetary constraints.
As with all radical innovations, our work to deliver low-cost clean energy to the residents of Hackney has unlocked multiple other benefits.
“The government and GB Energy need to think outside the national infrastructure box to empower councils and housing providers to work with Ofgem and the market to innovate further”
The focus on delivering the lowest-cost installation solution and creating the minimum of disruption to residents has led us to use the existing electrical infrastructure in buildings. This means that installation is rapid and comes at a fraction of the cost of solutions that require complicated hardware deployment alongside the panels themselves.
So even if your priority is to deliver free energy back to residents or achieve an uprating in Energy Performance Certificates, our solution offers the opportunity to radically reduce any upfront investment.
Smart, data-led solutions are the key to unlocking these local markets, and we are already planning ahead for how we will trade between multiple microgrid assets for macro solutions.
But with an estimated 6.75GW of potential solar energy sitting on the roofs of UK flats, we can’t create local energy markets alone. Local electricity markets have the power to fund a fairer energy transition at the ‘grid edge’ while accelerating adoption of other technologies.
It all starts with solar, which is the key to unlocking the other three disruptive domestic electrification technologies: battery storage, heat pumps and electric-vehicle charging. As these technologies get deployed, the creation of local electricity markets is inevitable. With the changes that have already been made, we can start building local electricity markets today.
The government and publicly owned clean-energy company GB Energy need to think outside the national infrastructure box to empower councils and housing providers to work with Ofgem and the market to innovate further. They must innovate to create local energy markets that are as subsidy free as possible – markets where the generation, trading and management benefit residents, communities and society.
Let’s start building a new energy system one roof at a time.
Reg Platt, chief executive, Emergent