Forest Fuels takes top honour at Green Energy Awards

Forest Fuels took a top accolade at the national Green Energy Awards, bringing home the coveted sustainable energy Installer of the Year Award.

Presented to Forest Fuels’ Finance Director Martin Keattch by Lord Robin Teverson and host Joe Sellman-Leava, the award recognises ‘high-quality work, an exemplary level of customer service, and the delivery of innovative solutions to address the rapid changes in the market.’

“This is a proud moment for Forest Fuels and a fitting reward for the effort and dedication that our staff have put in over the past 12 months,” said managing director Peter Solly. “Despite its title, the Installer of the Year Award is about much more than just installations, as it recognizes all sustainable energy installers and suppliers. We’re honored to represent those companies in the sustainable energy industry that deliver numerous high-quality services throughout the supply chain.”

The Green Energy Award acknowledges an exceptional 12 months in Forest Fuels’ history, which has seen the company recording exceptional growth, the development of a successful wood fuel delivery model throughout the whole of the UK, as well as a focus on providing high-quality ESCOs, boiler buyback and consultancy services.

“First-rate local service is critical to how we operate,” added Peter, “and we’re very proud of the fact that – through each period of our growth – Forest Fuels has continued to invest in local depots and infrastructure throughout the country.”

Forest Fuels’ operations started just 11 years ago at a single location on a farm in Devon.  Now, with more than 40 depots across the UK and a turnover of more than £20 million per annum, the biomass wood fuel distribution firm has been successful in developing an environmental business that can compete alongside fossil-fuel suppliers.

The dazzling Green Energy Awards’ ceremony took place at the historic Bath Assembly Rooms on 18 December. Now in their 14th year, the awards bring together the most well-respected companies and individuals in the UK to celebrate the initiatives that are driving forward the sustainable energy revolution.

Awards’ judges were particularly impressed by the range of outstanding initiatives that Forest Fuels carries out, including acquiring other regional operators, providing in-depth training for staff, delivering industry-leading projects, and fundraising for local community organisations.

Judge Lord Robin Teverson said: “All of the shortlisted nominees were outstanding. However, Forest Fuels really stood out in the number and capacity of installations that they’d delivered, the scale of growth of the company in difficult times, the innovative financial engineering they have introduced for customers and the interesting research and development they have undertaken with a focus on decarbonising heat.’

Peter added: “Over the past twelve months Forest Fuels has taken huge strides forward, rolling out our successful model nationally and deliberately building a business that doesn’t have to rely on subsidies or be affected by policy changes. We’ve continued our mission to ensure that the biomass industry can match and even surpasses the service that traditional energy suppliers provide, proving that heating your home or business using biomass can now be simple, professional and fully-automated.”

Some of the measures that Forest Fuels has developed over the past 12 months include:

• Developing its commercial biomass ‘boiler buy back’ scheme, where Forest Fuels ‘buys back’ the boiler (giving the organisation a cash lump sum) looks after the upkeep, servicing, maintenance and fuel delivery and the customer simply buys the heat
• Fully-funded Energy Supply Contracts (ESCOs), which sees Forest Fuels paying the high-capital-cost of installing the biomass boiler and providing the customer with a fully maintained, hassle free solution.
• Opening new, high-technology depots, including one at Liverpool’s Albert Docks, which holds ten times as many pellets as the previous facility did and includes rigorous quality controls.
• Developing its Fuel Usage Monitoring System: a small gadget that enables accurate fuel usage monitoring and automated deliveries.