
Orenda Energy Solutions – the Livingston-based designer and manufacturer of the Skye 51kW small/medium ‘tilting tower’ wind turbine – is to offer a package of ‘peace of mind’ measures to investors and the farming and rural community for its ground-breaking turbine.
Central to these offerings is a complete performance guarantee against its published Annual Energy Production (AEP), plus all-risk insurance – including loss of income. Orenda is also extending its current five year parts and labour warranty guarantee to seven years – measures designed to maximise return on investment in the face of reduced FiT payments.
This enables Orenda to completely guarantee the operational performance of the turbine on an annual basis, and for the full duration of the seven year warranty program. Orenda is confident the turbine will produce no less than 95% of its published AEP and should there be any shortfall, will reimburse this directly to the user.
Whilst small and medium wind energy is crucial to farming, private landowners and domestic rural communities, future installers and end customers will now have a robust package of strong incentives, which are unparalleled as a package in the small medium wind sector and have been introduced at a time when the reduction in FiT tariff levels brings a further challenge to the hard pressed rural economy.
Steve McMahon, Orenda’s Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) said: “There are many technological innovations integrated into Orenda’s Skye 51kW turbine and giving assurances and performance guarantee criteria as significant fail-safe benefits to the customer, is, I believe, the most detailed and robust offering of its kind to the UK’s farming and rural communities.
“Small and medium wind turbines are a lifeline for Britain’s rural economy however there is a job still to be done to bring a majority of these communities to embrace renewable energy.
“Many have said they would be keen to do so, but with so much hesitancy regarding return on investment (ROI) over an extended period, some may be reluctant to incur more capital expenditure.
Our new package of incentives should go some way to give them peace of mind and help them realise the financial returns a small or medium wind turbine can achieve for them, backed by a raft of pioneering ‘peace of mind’ measures.”