Independent energy company SmartestEnergy is expanding its operations in Scotland on the back of continued growth north of the border.
The company, which opened an office in Glasgow just under three years ago to add to its existing locations in London and Ipswich, has moved to larger premises in the city and is recruiting a new team member after seeing customer numbers more than double.
SmartestEnergy, the UK’s purchaser and supplier of electricity from the independent generation sector, now buys energy from more than 150 projects in Scotland. These range from single wind turbines developed by communities on remote islands to industrial-scale biomass plants and major offshore and marine technology prototypes.
It has relocated to inovo, Scottish Enterprise’s £10 million industry engagement building built to support Scotland’s renewable energy industry. The company is also in the process of recruiting a new account manager to support its existing team in Scotland.
Iain Robertson, SmartestEnergy’s Glasgow-based Head of Generation, said:
“We have seen the number of generation projects and customers we buy energy from in Scotland increase significantly since we established a permanent office here.
“The major changes underway in the energy sector through Electricity Market Reform offer exciting opportunities for those we work with and we see potential for much more investment in the independent generation sector.
“Relocating to the inovo building will help us continue our growth and put us at the heart of an increasingly important industry for Scotland.”
The total capacity of Scottish projects SmartestEnergy buys from now stands at over 350MW, enough to provide power for some 350,000 homes.
The latest annual Energy Entrepreneurs Scotland Report recently published by SmartestEnergy showed that 169 new independent renewable projects of 50kW capacity or more started in Scotland in 2013, up 50 per cent on the number of new starts in 2012 and taking the total in operation to 509. More than £66m was invested in independent, commercial-scale renewable electricity schemes in Scotland in 2013, generating around £234 million worth of electricity, up from £191m in 2012.