Wind turbine group looks to blow its way across America

Evoco Energy has sold about 50 turbines since January and said it expects to win another 500 orders this year. The Brighouse company was set up in 2007 and started selling this year after spending several years on research and development.

Lawrence Tomlinson, the care homes entrepreneur behind Garforth-based LNT Group, has taken a six per cent stake in the business, which has created small-scale turbine technology for rural areas and has the capacity to produce 5,000 machines a year.

It already exports to France, Australia and New Zealand and Fraser Marwick, commercial director of Evoco, told the Yorkshire Post the firm wants to launch in America this year.

“There is quite a lot of interest in America and I think things will move quickly.”

Evoco is setting up a reseller network, similar to the one it has used in Britain, and expects to win more orders from farmers.

Its transatlantic expansion is being driven by states and cities which offer incentives, such as California, Michagan and Chicago. Evoco staff will soon attend a renewables trade fair in Anaheim, in Orange County, California, in order to drive growth.

The British arm of the business has seen strong sales from Yorkshire, Cornwall, Wales and areas of northern Scotland, such as Unst on the North isles of Shetland, where an Evoco turbine is believed to be the most northerly in Britain. People are “clamouring” for the product, Mr Marwick said.

“Farmers get their money back in five years and have 15 to 20 years of generating an income. Turbines used to be bought by environmental enthusiasts (only but) now there is also a return on investment.”

Users can draw on the Government’s feed-in tariffs, which are known as clean energy cashback and mean the owners of properties can receive money for small-scale, environmentally-friendly power generation.

Evoco turbines are sold by resellers for around £45,000, which includes installation, and are manufactured in a joint venture with Ginlong, a Chinese company with a factory in Shanghai.

Mr Marwick said Evoco used to instruct farmers how to use the turbines but they have become increasingly familiar with the technology.

The firm currently has orders for nearly 200 turbines and hopes to turn over about £14m this year.

It has been helped with logistics support by parent company Wiley Accessories, the fashion supplier set up by Julian Wiley in 1972. The entrepreneur set up Evoco with managing director Ryan Gill when he tried to buy a wind turbine and was disappointed by what was on offer.

“He was interested in making his company and personal life carbon neutral. He tried to buy a wind turbine and was not impressed... He was introduced to Ryan Gill who had a knowledge of the renewables business,” Mr Marwik said.

Staff are due to join the green business from Brighouse-based Wiley this year, he added.

Mr Tomlinson joined Evoco because of his experience in high-growth enterprises as well as his interest in green energy. The chairman of LNT Group sold the original Orchard Care Home operation to a management buyout team in a £175m deal in 2007 and is worth about £400m today.

Mr Tomlinson said earlier this month: “We can no longer rely on traditional energy production for future generations, and companies like Evoco have been quick to recognise this, but unlike many others they have also been quick to do something about it and use their expertise in microgeneration to provide a solution to a macro energy problem, while others are still talking about it.”

Ginetta, part of LNT Group, is one of the few domestic car manufacturers to have developed a fully working electric car but its application for a development grant was turned down by the Technology Strategy Board.

Specialist in green technology

Evoco Energy specialises in small-scale wind turbine technology for rural areas and has invested in wind microgeneration, also known as “microwind”.

It involves small-scale wind turbines with aerodynamic rotors to turn wind energy into electricity.

They do not interfere with livestock rearing or crop growth and can be used on rural areas as small as one acre, Evoco said.

As well as farmers, other potential customers include smallholders, homeowners and commercial property sites with extra land. The firm’s turbines produce between 30,000 and 40,000 kilowatt hours a year, according to Fraser Marwick, commercial director.