Leading Cornish energy specialist Happy Energy has launched a multi-million pound initiative to offer businesses in Cornwall and Devon a free commercial biomass boiler to help in the fight against rising heating bills.
The initial £1 million investment by the Pool Innovation Centre-based company is aimed at businesses that are not on the mains gas network and that currently have heating bills of £15k a year or more.
The initiative could see them receive a £150k state of the art biomass boiler system fitted and fully maintained free of charge to replace traditional and expensive oil and LPG heating.
If successful, a further £10 million is expected to be raised to fund further free boiler installations over the next 18 months with the expansion into free biomass boilers for households in the region.
According to Happy Energy CEO Adrian Wright, the launch of the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) has acted as the catalyst for the free boiler offer, which will see heating bills cut by almost a third.
He said: “For large energy users in the region such as hotels, leisure centres, tourist attractions, schools, food production or care homes, energy can be one of the biggest overheads they have to deal with.
“Biomass boilers – which use wood pellets as fuel – will not only cut heating and hot water bills by around 30% from the moment they are commissioned, which for a business spending £15k a year on heating is a saving of £4.5k a year, but are much more environmentally friendly.
“The launch of the RHI, which sees payments made to those installing biomass boilers, has made them a really attractive proposition for businesses but we recognise that the £150k capital investment costs can be prohibitive and stop many of the businesses that will benefit most from Biomass, from getting one.
“The launch of the free initiative will see us design and fit the system, commission it and maintain and upkeep it for 20 years, enabling businesses to enjoy the real benefits that Biomass offers, only having to pay for the wood pellet fuel themselves.
“The RHI payments come to us to offset the cost of the supply, installation and ongoing maintenance of the boiler.”
