Nest announces deal with Irish utility to offer its learning thermostats for free

Nest announced a partnership today with Electric Ireland to provide its smart thermostat for free to customers who sign a two-year contract with the utility.

Tony Fadell, chief executive of Nest, confirmed the new partnership on stage today at the Web Summit in Dublin.

“This is huge,” he said. “We think this is a huge announcement that could change Ireland.”

Details of the partnership were not immediately available. Fadell said that Electric Ireland, which has 1.5 million customers, would be distributing the thermostat.

Fadell dropped the news during a conversation about how being acquired by Google had changed Nest. He said that Google’s resources had allowed Nest to expand internationally much faster than it could have on its own.