TWELVE months since installing its first Vergnet wind turbine, a North Yorkshire renewables company is reporting that its UK fleet is surpassing expectations.

ICE Renewables specialises in medium sized wind projects and has experienced a record volume of orders for wind turbines compared to previous years, posting record sales, with an increase in turnover of over 300%.

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Based on the Crabtree Hall Business Centre in Northallerton, ICE Renewables is the exclusive UK distributor for Vergnet and has installed 10 of these turbines across Great Britain in the last year, with a further two currently in construction.

Through constant remote monitoring ICE’s operations and maintenance division is able to report the availability of these turbines over the year, is routinely outperforming on contracted targets.

Speaking about the fleet’s performance, ICE Renewable’s CEO and Chair of Renewable UK’s Small and Medium Wind Strategy Group, Julian Martin said;

“This has been an exceptional year for us in terms of sales and performance.

“We would generally expect a single wind turbine installation to have an availability of around 95 per cent each month, but the majority of our turbines are recording between 96.3 per cent and 99.6 per cent. This is very high indeed and highlights the quality and reliability of our operations and maintenance team and the Vergnet wind turbine, which is a key factor for businesses and farms when choosing the right product.

“Medium wind turbines, such as Vergnet’s, offer excellent returns for farmers, landowners, communities and businesses, especially at the moment with the increasing cost of energy. If customers have the space for a turbine, it really is a good economic investment for them.”

One of the highest performing turbines in the fleet is at Ulceby Grange Farm in Lincolnshire. The business, which supplies its Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese to Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks restaurants, is now generating enough electricity to meet the needs of the farm and regularly sells excess energy back to the grid.

Simon Jones, owner of Ulceby Grange Farm says:

“The philosophy of the farm is about organic cheese production. It is amazing to be milking cows and making cheese using the power of the wind. With the help of ICE Renewables and Vergnet we are able to use an abundant natural resource to generate our own electricity on the farm and that is hugely exciting.

“There are businesses, such as ours, who are conscious of the impact farming has on the environment and we now know that every unit of electricity we produce from our wind turbine is coming from a natural resource and not a coal fired power station.”

Moving forward, ICE Renewables has 17 consented sites with planning permission for Vergnet turbines. And with a change to the Feed in Tariff (FiT) expected in 2014, ICE is advising customers to beat the deadline and take advantage of reduced energy bills and a second income stream.

“There’s quite a lead time on the planning, design and build of wind turbines,” adds Julian. “So customers need to act now to beat the April 2014 FiT deadline. For those thinking about installing a turbine, we’d encourage them to get advice now and take advantage of tariffs before they’re reduced.”

Established in 2006, ICE Renewables is growing strongly, especially in the medium scale wind turbine sector and one of the country’s main providers of medium wind turbines with demand for our products coming from farmers and the rural community, land agents and landowners as well as developers and the industrial sector. We are also building our presence in the commercial market and retail sectors and are expanding our sales territory to include wider geographical areas and extending our turbine portfolio to include a 100kW turbine and a megawatt class turbine

ICE Renewables was established in 2006. The company employs 20 people and is led by a management team with more than 35 years of experience in the wind and renewable energy market.

Media contact: Sara Fisher, r//evolution marketing – 0191 499 8415. saraf@r-evolution.co.uk