Friday 7 June 2019

Octopus Energy launches new tariffs to grow vertical farming sector

Octopus Energy for Business has launched two new tariffs specially designed to grow the vertical farming industry.

Vertical farming is the practice of producing plants for food and medicine in vertically-stacked layers - compared to traditional agriculture, they can increase output 100-fold and as a result are likely to prove invaluable as population soars in the next few decades.

Octopus Energy’s bespoke offerings aim to cut the costs of such operations by up to 12%, depending on crop type, and allow agritech businesses to reduce their environmental impact.

The tariffs allow indoor farms to tap into energy pricing at half-hour intervals to help them avoid avoiding peak demand times.

Zoisa Walton, Director of Octopus Energy for Business, said: “The fact that energy costs account for up to 40% of vertical farms’ overheads presented a problem – and we developed the Vertical Power tariff specifically to make the sector more efficient.

The firm says the tariffs can be used in commercial-grade vertical farms, greenhouses or smaller urban projects.