By utilising an investment of £100 million Yorkshire entrepreneurs Philip Taylor and Gary Douglas hope to become one of the UK’s leading providers of renewable energy. The creation of Oakapple Renewable Energy Limited, or OAREL, is also expected to generate 14 new jobs over the next two years.
OAREL will begin generating renewable energy by utilising the popular rent-a-roof solar model, installing free PV panels across the UK in exchange for the feed-in tariff payments. In the longer term, the company will develop alternative forms of energy generation, including wind power and anaerobic digestion systems.
Taylor and Douglas hope to differentiate OAREL from its competitors by focusing on the commercial sector, with plans to install systems of up to 50kW. The company will also aim to complete 500 domestic installations per month in the next two years, but the entrepreneurs believe the savings on electricity costs will be biggest for owners of small commercial and industrial premises where daytime usage of electricity is high.
“We are forecasting that within two years the company will have invested around £100 million in solar power generation systems and will be completing more than 30 commercial and 500 residential installations every month,” explained Taylor, who is now the company’s Managing Director.
OAREL has already started attracting investment interest, with a total of £20 million committed by March 2012. “We are already in advanced contract negotiations with a number of well-known businesses and are in discussions with a variety of food processors, hotels, licensed premises, GP surgeries, retail outlets, manufacturing companies, facilities managers and ground rent portfolio landlords,” said Taylor.
“With a predicted average return on investment of 14%, we are currently in talks with a number of people who have expressed an interest in investing in the company.”
To complete the projects, OAREL has formed an installation agreement with a number of European EPC partners who between them have installed in excess of 50MWp across Europe. All are accredited under the industry’s Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
