Cardiff-based energy tech firm Sero Technologies has secured a contract with one of England’s largest housing associations to decarbonise 1,000 properties.
Sero has secured a contract to work with Sovereign, which is headquartered in Basingstoke, for the energy retrofitting of 1,000 homes across the South of England after the housing association was awarded £9.4m from the UK Government’s second wave of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Sero works with landlords, mortgage lenders – including Principality Building Society – housebuilders and others to plot a pathway to net zero for their homes. The firm has developed digital tools that design and deliver cost effective low carbon solutions for both new build and existing homes.
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Retrofit measures, which will be assessed for each home, will include insulation fitting, heat pumps, battery storage, solar panels and ‘smart’ home controls and sensors. The homes are expected to approach Net Zero carbon for their whole energy footprint as the grid decarbonises in future.
The resulting homes will achieve EPC ratings of B-plus and provide an improved affordability benefit to Sovereigns’ customers, where bills could be reduced by as much as half post-retro fit.
The Cardiff firm will also provide each home with a digital “building passport” which tracks all the retrofit measures needed to achieve Net Zero. The same passport links to ongoing monitoring within each home to evaluate its operation, ensuring quicker identification of faults or poor environmental conditions within homes, such as risk of dampness.
Andy Sutton, co-founder at Sero, said: “We have a lot of experience working on retrofit projects in conjunction with more than 30 social landlords, and are incredibly excited to support Sovereign’s decarbonisation programme.
“As Sero scales-up, progressive housing associations such as Sovereign provide the perfect partner for our technical and digital services, helping us to help them provide their customers with easily operated, comfortable, affordable homes on their Pathway to Zero.”
In January 2022, Sero Technologies secured a £5.5m equity investment boost to support its growth plans from financial institutions Hodge and Legal & General. The investment gives them a combined stake in Sero of just under 30%.
Sovereign chief executive Mark Washer said: “Improving every home we own is core to our mission, and this funding will play an important part in expanding our retrofit programme to thousands of customers.
“At a time when people are struggling to pay their bills and when the quality of social housing is under scrutiny, we have an important role to play in helping to make our customers’ homes warmer and more energy efficient.
“We will work with our customers to explain every step of the journey, what the outcomes will be, how this will benefit them and how newly installed smart-home technology will help to reduce their energy bills.”
Lord Callanan, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said: “This investment will help thousands of households to heat their homes for less, keep them warm for longer and could save hundreds on their annual energy bill.
“The green energy sector is growing, and this funding will support green jobs and provide the training needed to deliver these vital upgrades to homes.”
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