A brief history of Solutions Renewable Energy

Solutions Renewable Energy Ltd was established in 2006. The company is based in Coventry and operates throughout the Midlands.

Solutions Renewable Energy Ltd was established in 2006. The company is based in Coventry and operates throughout the Midlands. Solutions Managing Director, Simon Dunnett, describes why he set up the company and the plans for the future:

"I started SRE after working in the building industry for the past twenty years. Ever since my degree in Mechanical Engineering and masters degree in Energy Technology I have known that this is the field I wanted work in, but in those days renewable energy was considered to be on the fringes of home energy provision.

I specialised in developing wind energy systems and was involved in further research in the early nineties at the University of Warwick into the design of a small wind system intended for manufacture and use in developing countries while also running my building company.

I then went on to work for a charity, then called ITDG (now Practical Action) as an energy researcher. There I worked on several projects, notably the design of a small wind generator for use in Sri Lanka and Peru. Although the renewable energy field had started to grow by then, I was still more interested in small systems than utility scale projects. After continuing in the building industry for a while, taking a further qualification as a plumber, I decided to take the plunge and start my own renewable energy installation company. Having both experience in the building trade and in developing renewable energy systems, this proved a good decision.

We first concentrated on solar thermal systems because, with rising gas and oil prices and the availabilty of a Government grants, solar thermal became much more affordable. When the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) was launched we took the decision to participate from the outset.

We are proud to be the only MCS registered firm in the Coventry area and which means our customers qualitfy to receive Government and other grants that are available. We now offer installation of ground and air-source heat pumps and hope to be MCS registered for these technologies in the near future. There are also an increasing number of people wanting to use wood, or other biomass burners, to provide space heating and hot water, so we are now working towards HETAS registration to enable us to install these technologies as well.