Shake-up in green energy market creates opportunity

Cuts in support payments for renewable energy by the Government have led to a shake-up of the sector that one Shropshire firm is turning into an opportunity.

Renewable and low impact energy specialist, 7Energy, has weathered recent volatile months for the industry which have seen many suppliers go out of business. Now the Shrewsbury-based firm is expanding its offering to support green energy users whose original installers may have disappeared.

Managing director, Martin Dowley, explained: “There has been a major shock to the green energy sector in recent months as the Government slashed one support mechanism after another. It has caused enough of a pause in people considering whether to go ahead with solar, biomass and other renewable solutions that it has killed off some firms.

“Those companies had customers who need specialist knowledge to service and repair their various installations, so we're expanding our offering to provide service packages and call-out services to make sure they have experienced people to turn to. Our team is certified on many and varied products, from wood pellet and wood chip boilers to solar PV and solar thermal heating systems and more.”

The firm will primarily be covering Shropshire, Powys and North Wales, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire for servicing and repair from it's Harlescott base.

Generous feed-in tariffs, the payments received for adding energy made by renewable installations into the National Grid, have been heavily scaled back because the Government thinks the sector can now stand on it's own two feet.

Mr Dowley said: “There is still a very strong case for investing in renewable energy installations, both for business and domestic use. They might not pay for themselves as quickly as they once would have done in some circumstances, but that should never have been the main consideration. They cut your bills and mean you are making your own clean energy. How important that last factor is to you is a key part of making the decision to use green technology, plus there are now an increasing number of ways to maximise your return other than through support payments.”

More information is available at servicing.7energy.co.uk or by emailing [email protected].