IT HAS been a busy time for Ecocel Renewables of late, as upheavals in the renewables industry have left it as the best option for farmscale turbine owners’ looking for long term maintenance and servicing provision.

Speaking to The Scottish Farmer, Ecocel managing director Neil Wilson acknowledged that the demise of former sector powerhouse VG Energy had created a lot of new work for his company, prompting an increase in both its workforce and floorspace.

“There has been lots happening and we’ve been very busy since VG went. That was a surprise, and as much as they were our biggest competition, we didn’t wish that on them. We are starting several of their ex employees and many of their customers are calling us,” said Mr Wilson.

“We have moved to new larger premises in East Kilbride to cope with the increase in work, and are now repairing turbines at our workshop and storing spare parts for most turbines, including Endurance, RRB/Vestas, Lely, Proven, C and F, and Gaia. Our workforce has more than doubled in last three months.”

The firm can now offer extended warranty insurance for C and F and Endurance turbine owners in particular – and Mr Wilson suggested that there were literally hundreds of C and F customers looking for an alternative to the Irish company’s own after sales arrangements.

“We have spent last two years developing an IMI (Independent Monitoring Interface) which can interface with any turbine to allow customer independence from manufacturer,” he reported. “The first 20 have been successfully tested on C&F turbines over the last three months and we are now rolling them out. This allows customers to move away from the manufacturer and get a better service and support.”

Mr Wilson reckons that the firm has become the largest small wind – that is 2.5kW to 500kW machines – servicing company in the UK. But although servicing is now Ecocel’s core business, it is still getting a high number of enquires for new installs, even with the favourable FiT tariffs gone.

To that end, it has just been appointed UK technical and customer support for Lely, and was installing its first Lely LA 30kW turbine in Shropshire this week.