Winterbrook Meadows houses will have solar photovoltaic tiles

09/01/2025

From the building fabric to solar panels and heat pumps, we’re on a mission to improve the energy efficiency of our homes even further.

Winterbrook Meadows may nestle in gentle countryside near to one of Oxfordshire’s most historic market towns, but the development at Wallingford will feature some seriously modern energy-efficient solutions. 

Solar photovoltaic (PV) tiles will be incorporated onto the roofs of the two, three, four and five-bedroom houses, providing a free renewable energy source for residents to power their appliances. Each house will also feature a wastewater heat recovery system, a clever solution that captures and reuses the heat from wastewater from showers and appliances to preheat the water entering the home, which can help minimise energy consumption. 

Solar PV panels have also been installed at all homes at Hollyfields in Tunbridge Wells, helping to reduce carbon emissions across the development. And The Green Quarter, Eden Grove, Grand Union and Bowden House at Prince of Wales Drive are also using solar panels to provide electricity for communal areas such as lighting in corridors, lifts, leisure centres and lounges.

From the Outside In

Solar panels are just one of many low carbon technologies we’re introducing as part of our Climate Action Plan. The energy-efficient qualities of a Berkeley Group home begin to take shape at the very start of its journey from architect’s sketch to finished property. From the outside in, our homes are built to be as efficient as they can be. 

“We have been focusing on energy efficiency of homes for a long time,” says Sirio D’Aleo, Group Senior Sustainability Manager at Berkeley Group. “What we tend to do is a ‘fabric first’ approach, so we focus on the envelope first and try to reduce the energy that is required to heat the home. That means having thick insulation, working on the air permeability of the building to reduce heat loss, installing high-performing windows and so on.”  

Anyone who has lived in a period property knows the frustration of having the heating on full blast while the house still feels drafty. According to a report by the Home Builders Federation, the energy consumption of a new house was less than half of that recorded for an older property. 

While the median home energy efficiency rating in England and Wales was band D in 2022, 94% of our new build homes have an EPC (energy performance certificate) of band B or above.

Heating Systems for the Future

As for heating our homes, we are moving to the use of heat pumps instead of gas boilers, which are three or four times more efficient. 

At Woodberry Down in North London, a development that has won an Environmental Best Practice Award, air source heat pumps are already in use to provide low energy and low cost heating. And there are solar PV panels on block roofs to power communal areas. 

In fact, in only four years, the proportion of our development sites installing air source or ground source heat pumps has gone from 8% in 2020, to 33% in 2024. 

Currently, Sirio explains that many of our homes have mechanical ventilation units with heat recovery (MVHR) – a machine in the ceiling that extracts stale air and replaces it with fresh filtered air, warmed by extracting heat from the stale air being removed.

Energy-efficient Appliances 

All our homes have efficient appliances fitted as standard, which means you can expect dual flush WCs, low-flow taps, showerheads that use less water, as well as water-efficient washing machines and dishwashers.  

LED lighting, which uses less energy than conventional bulbs, is always chosen for our homes, and each property is fitted with a smart meter and energy display devices (the electronic display that tells you how much energy you are consuming at any one time).

Mitigating Climate Change

Jessica Lewis, Group Head of Sustainable Places at Berkeley Group, says that the natural landscape at our developments are hugely important in helping homes work more efficiently. “We would always do an overheating assessment for all our homes before it was required by building regulations,” she says. 

An overheating assessment takes into account rising temperatures due to climate change. “The assessment looks at shadowing, reducing the amount of sunlight that comes into a home at certain times of the day.”

At The Green Quarter in West London, 50% of the development is designed as open green space where 2,500 trees will be planted, giving valuable shade and shadow to the homes there. “Our living roofs also combat the urban heat island effect,” says Jessica. “The flora retains water and slowly releases that into the air, which cools down the surrounding air.”

Reducing Carbon Emissions

Sirio explains that while it’s easier to control the carbon emissions produced by the homes we build, a tougher challenge is the embodied carbon of the construction process. This is the carbon footprint that is inherent in the supply chain of building materials. 

“For instance, gas might be used to power the kiln to make bricks,” he says. “All those stages generate carbon emissions. Our duty is to influence the supply chain in a way to try and reduce that.” 

One of our science-based targets is to reduce the carbon impact of the materials and services we use by 40% between 2019 and 2030. Even on the construction site, there are ways to reduce our carbon footprint. We have begun using certified biodiesel as a low-carbon alternative to fossil diesel and encourage our site teams to consider electric equipment and hybrid machinery. 

It is all part of our mission to build low carbon, resilient homes – homes that are not just for this generation, but future ones too.

“We want to be industry leaders in sustainability,” says Sirio. “Whatever we do, we want to try and show the industry how to do it to our very best.” 

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