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Jemma CrewBusiness reporter
Octopus boss Greg Jackson says demand for solar panels has soared since the Iran war began
The UK's biggest energy firm has seen a 50% rise in solar panel sales after the US-Israel war with Iran pushed oil and gas prices up, its boss told the BBC.
Greg Jackson, head of Octopus Energy, described a "huge jolt" in sales of solar panels and heat pumps, as well as enquiries about electric vehicles and chargers, so far this month compared to February.
Jackson said households would "very likely" see higher energy bills from July when Ofgem's price cap, which is currently shielding millions of households, is reset.
He told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast that Octopus was staying optimistic about the impacts of the conflict, but planning on it being "more serious".
Wholesale oil and gas prices have surged since the war broke out on 28 February, disrupting the production and transportation of energy across the Middle East.
Higher energy prices may lead to a rise in the cost of other goods around the world, but it often shows up first at the fuel pump.
Jackson said the UK had experienced a "much more dramatic increase in energy costs than we are likely to see here" after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He acknowledged it "couldn't be more confusing" for people that the price cap will lower prices for three months from April, while at the same time people are being warned the crisis will likely lead to future energy bill rises.
He said this had pushed households to think about renewable energy.
He said customers were saying "Look, we've just got to do something about it" with Octopus seeing a 50% rise in solar panel sales and 30% rise in heat pump sales, while enquiries about EVs were up more than a third, and chargers by about a fifth.
This is based on comparing the first three weeks of February and March, with Jackson saying orders and enquiries were normally fairly steady month on month.
He was also asked about recent comments to the BBC by Larry Fink, chief executive of the world's biggest asset management company, BlackRock, comparing progress on energy in China to Europe where he just sees "a lot of talk and no action".
Jackson said Europe was "torturing" itself over discussions about moving too fast or slow on green energy, and North Sea drilling.
China, however, was just "getting on with it", he said, citing its state oil company's aim to get rid of all petrol stations by 2040.
"They're doing it because it gives them more and more resilience, more and more energy security against the kind of crisis we're seeing yet again in the Middle East and in the global fossil fuel industries," he said.
He brushed aside suggestions that more oil drilling in the North Sea would make the UK more resilient.
This would make only a "tiny difference", he said, adding the fossil fuel industry will never have lots of spare capacity which is why prices go "through the roof" when there is a supply crunch.
He said the most important thing is to get the cost of electricity down in the UK, which would enable more people to use EVs and heat pumps.
While EVs would once have been regarded as expensive options, he said there was more parity now between petrol and electric models and an emerging second-hand market.
The divide where lower income households were priced out of affording EVs is "disappearing", he added.
In the wide-ranging interview, Jackson also cited the role of the welfare state in supporting his "incredible single mum" who was studying while bringing him and his siblings up.
He said the benefits bill was often seen as too high, and there was a need to find ways to get people into work.
"And exactly as it happened for my mum, be a sort of an enabler to go on to great things," he continued. "So I do think it's really important that we have some of the social structures that let people get through tough times in order to become contributors."
Jackson also touched on Artificial Intelligence (AI), warning the "relentless pace" in advancement could leave humans with very little that they are better at than machines.
We must be ready for an "incredible degree of change", he said, adding: "There's going to be a lot less if anything that's unique about people and we're going to have to really work hard to work out how we make that good for us."
