This year, we kicked off London Climate Week with our very own, signature style Octopus Energy Tech Summit. Over 3,000 attendees joined us – celebrities, policymakers, industry leaders, and most excitingly; our customers, gathered in Battersea Park for an unforgettable day. Not to mention, a special shoutout from Idris Elba who video-called in to say he had FOMO!
Have a look at our favourite moments of the day.
Holding these summits behind closed doors defeats the purpose of democratising energy, and building towards a just and equitable transition that lifts us all up.
Greg Jackson
Watch our highlights of the day:
Star Power, Space Walks and Storytelling
Astronaut Chris Hadfield kicked us off with a fascinating talk about technology’s power and global energy use. Watching clips from his space missions felt like being transported to Apollo 11; absolutely mesmerizing and the perfect way to think about our planet from a cosmic perspective.
Sir Stephen Fry and Professor Yuval Noah Harari had a thought provoking and illuminating conversation about AI’s future.
Don’t concentrate on how efficient you are, AI can do that. Concentrate on what a wonderful human being you are. Human exceptionalism will become how good we are as people.
Stephen Fry
Rory Sutherland’s talk was a true highlight. He shared brilliant insights about the power of storytelling to make an impact in the world. There’s so much incredible innovation happening and it matters how we bring people along to help shape our new green world. Plus, did you know the Edwardians had electric cars?
Greg announced the world’s first EV vehicle-to-grid bundle with BYD
Our very own Greg returned with another big announcement. After launching the Cosy 6 heat pump in 2023 and Mercury, our “Bluetooth for energy”, in 2024, this year he is accelerating the EV revolution with the Power Pack Bundle – the UK’s first vehicle to grid package. Built in partnership with BYD, the world’s top electric car maker, the bundle includes a leased V2G-ready BYD Dolphin, a bi-directional charger and access to a smart tariff that guarantees completely free home charging. It is priced under £300 a month and powered by Kraken, making savings effortless. And in true Octopus style, the announcement was driven right onto the stage, by none other than Formula One star Damon Hill in his BYD Dolphin EV.
Physicist Brian Cox gave an inspiring talk about human potential and our incredible achievements thus far, that brought some beautiful perspective into the room.
It was followed by an eye-opening fireside chat with CEO and UN Secretary-General Rep, Damilola Ogunbiyi and Jono West, Chairman of MOPO, the company bringing green tech to countries across Africa. Damilola spoke about Mission 300; the revolutionary plan to bring electricity access to 300 million people across the African continent.
We don’t want energy to light up our homes, we want it to light up our lives.
Damilola Ogunbiyi
Areeba Hamid from Greenpeace UK delivered a powerful talk about defeating fossil fuels. Giving us all the encouragement we needed to be as loud as we can in our fight to protect our planet.
We’re on the precipice of consigning fossil fuel companies like this to the dustbin of history – and they’re fighting back.
Professor Hannah Fry shared some of the latest advances in the field of human longevity; not only will there be significantly more people across the planet over the next fifty years, they’ll also be living much longer. Which is why it’s so important we build a green world that doesn’t exhaust our finite resources.
Not only were we treated to an incredible lineup of speakers who each brought their own unique perspective to the future of energy and our planet. We also had Octopus heat pumps and chargers on display, plus a massive EV double-decker bus that had everyone talking.
And let’s not forget the huge wall of Octopus plushies and our pop-up Shoptopus, which made sure everyone got to take home a cuddly reminder of the day!
A trip down nostalgia lane
The day ended on a wonderfully nostalgic note with our founders’ chat, as they reflected on how they built Octopus from a scrappy start-up to the biggest energy company in the UK, and a global success. Also, find out which one of the founders has an Octopus tattoo!
The Energy Tech Summit perfectly captured what London Climate Week is all about: bringing together diverse voices, sharing innovative ideas, and inspiring action.
We can’t wait to see what next year brings!