With energy prices on the rise, it’s now more important than ever to capitalise on the ever decreasing cost of renewables. New homes with sustainable energy technologies need building, and older homes need retrofitting. In this episode, we sat down with Nigel Banks, R&D Director at ilke Homes. Nigel is a chartered engineer and has been in housing and construction for around 20 years.
Over the years, he’s shifted his focus from very large scale projects and consultancy to leading the development of modular homes for ilke. Sustainability has been a driving factor for Nigel for many years and it has been at the heart of his work from the initial design concepts of ilke’s modular homes. He seeks to make a meaningful difference on UK housing while addressing climate change and reducing people’s energy bills at the same time. We spoke to Nigel about where ilke is today and the organisation’s plans to build larger sites of zero carbon homes.
Nigel shared some insights into ilke’s partnership with Octopus Energy. We also discussed the difficulties that we’re facing with energy prices across the country. New homes with sustainable energy technologies are being built, and existing homes need to be retrofitted to meet zero carbon targets. But what challenges do both of these tasks pose? And how do we ensure that we can get the right talent to make this happen? And towards the end of our chat, Nigel shared some actionable tips on how to save money on our energy bills throughout the year.
*This episode was recorded on 2nd August and since then we have had the announcement around the energy price cap.
We also asked Nigel:
- Are zero carbon targets here to stay?
- How can we get people to make the behavioural shifts needed?
- How can we retrofit old home stock to an acceptable level?
- How are zero carbon sites measured?
- Will energy prices come back down in the UK?
- What does the future look like for ilke Homes?
Nigel’s energy expertise is essential listening!