Over a third (38 per cent) of small businesses plan to generate their own renewable energy within five years, with younger business owners being the most likely to act early, according to a new report.

Research by business-to-business energy supplier, Opus Energy, shows that interest in renewables is growing amongst SMEs in the UK.

500 companies were surveyed for the project, and of those, six per cent were already generating their own energy on site.

Eight per cent were planning to invest in renewable energy generation within 12 months and another 10 per cent were planning to within the next two years, with business owners in the 18 to 34 age bracket most likely to be taking action sonner.

Overall, about a third (32 per cent) were interested in solar panel, wind turbine or anaerobic digestion installations.

'Real dynamism'

Charlie Crossley Cooke, managing director of Opus Energy said: "There’s real dynamism in the SME sector from people who are genuine entrepreneurs, and we expect to see more examples of SMEs powering other businesses as well as their own."

The recently published survey was conducted in November, so it reflects SME opinions after cuts had been made to Feed-in Tariff (FIT) subsidies for large-scale solar installations and after further reductions had been proposed for small-scale installations.

It does not reflect opinions following the most recent proposals to reduce subsidies again in 2012, and to lower the subsidy rates for other technologies, such as small-scale wind turbines.

However, it still shows that a key motivator for SMEs was the opportunity to generate additional income by generating energy on site.  42 per cent cited that as their main reason for planning to invest.

Free support

North West businesses interested in the returns that can be made by installing renewable energy can contact the ENWORKS resource efficiency programme for free support and advice.

Posted under Environmental Technologies and Renewable Energy
and Business Support on 22 February 2012