News / Anderson to buy back Shetland Windpower
SHETLAND businessman Michael Anderson is to buy back the island remnants of his company Shetland Windpower Ltd (SWL), which went bust on Friday.
The announcement was made by Glasgow investment firm Nevis Capital, which took over SWL in a multi million pound deal last December.
Partner Brian Aitken said on Tuesday that the mainland trading element of SWL had been sold to Ayrshire-based VG Energy on Friday prior to the company being put into administration.
However Mr Aitken said VG Energy were not interested in the Shetland side of the business, which had been losing money.
Instead Mr Anderson, who was not available for comment, intends to buy back the Shetland arm of the company, which has been responsible for installing around 60 small wind turbines in the isles over the past 18 years.
This could provide some reassurance to many island customers who have been experiencing teething problems with turbines installed by SWL. Warranties should still apply to Évance and Westwind turbines, however owners of Proven turbines lost their warranties when that firm went out of business in September.
Mr Aitken said that Nevis Capital had decided to pull out of the wind power business because it had proved to be too challenging.
He said that they had set up a ‘value-added reseller’ deal with Proven, which meant they only supplied their turbines and left them with no turbines to sell when Proven went under.
However Mr Aitken added the business had been hampered by difficulties obtaining planning permission to erect turbines, along with problems in Shetland gaining access to the local electricity grid.
He said: “The pipeline we have built over the past year is to offer Proven turbines and we have no product going into that pipeline any more.
“Things are also taking so long to go through planning and the market isn’t growing as we thought it was. Central government is very keen on wind energy, but local government isn’t, it seems.”
He said he was delighted VG Energy had purchased the Scottish mainland side of SWL, which would mean that customers who had paid a deposit on a turbine would not lose money, as happened when another Proven supplier, Icon Energy, went into liquidation last month.
SWL had employed four staff in Shetland, who have all been made redundant. Two lost their jobs when Proven called in the receivers, while the remaining two went on Friday.
There are still around six customers in Shetland who have purchased the £50,000 P35-2 turbine, which brought Proven down when a defect was discovered in its manufacture.
There are rumours circulating that VG Energy are seeking accreditation for a weld that would fix the problem in the £50,000 turbines, which would allow them to function again.
VG Energy have also signed an exclusive distribution deal with US manufacturer Xzeres, whose 442SR turbines is said to be similar to the Proven P35-2.
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