Other parts of Shetland Wind Power, reports the Shetland Times  including its new turbine orders and customer inquiry list, were bought on Friday by the Ayrshire-based renewables firm VG Energy. The rest of the company’s assets and affairs were then placed in administration with accountants KPMG.

 Despite the new arrangements, customers who bought turbines through Wind Power will not have their warranties honoured or be able to get free servicing or new parts. New Wind Power customers taken on by VG are likely to be offered a US-made Xzeres turbine, instead of originally intended Proven Energy machines bought by Dublin listed KingSpan Renewables which washed its hands of Proven’s customers and discontinued the P35-2.

Nevis Capital’s failure to succeed in expanding Shetland Wind Power after buying it in a multi-million pound deal last December has been blamed largely on the demise of  both Proven, and a rival turbine installer Icon Energy.

GRID CAN"T TAKE FLUCTUATING POWER LOAD

Shetland Wind Power experienced a number of other major difficulties in its UK operation permissions volumes for turbines coming through the system has been a third of what the small-scale wind sector anticipated.

It also lost money on installing turbines in Shetland, due partly to lack of electricity grid connections. Scottish and Southern Energy closed the grid to more wind power being unable to handle the fluctuating power load.

Partner Brian Aitken (left)  believes VG Energy would be in a better position than Nevis to drive the Shetland Wind Power business forward at a time of consolidation in the small renewables sector, which he said Nevis did not have “the appetite” for.

VG Energy essentially left behind the bits of Shetland Wind Power that it did not want, which were then put through the process of administration. Aitken said Anderson was stepping in to buy some of the assets of the company he started 18 years ago because he wanted to try to support local customers. Anderson had continued with Shetland Wind Power as its technical director and retained a minor shareholding.

Ayreshire based VG Energy MD Jim Paterson said his company was “delighted” to acquire one of the longest-standing players in the renewables sector. He said VG was the number one renewable energy company in the UK and “in a strong position” to offer a range of products and services to the customer base of Shetland Wind Power.

Around 30 community groups in Shetland,  and about the same number of companies and private individuals already have turbines installed by Shetland Wind Power, mainly models made by Proven. With the manufacturer and supplier now both out of business,  warranties are worthless but the hope now is that at least they will be able to call on  Anderson for repairs and servicing. Wind Power also installed machines in Shetland made by Westwind and Evance, both of which are still in business.

Already the owners of at least seven of the biggest Proven machine, the ill-fated P35-2, have been waiting for help for two months after being forced to stop their machines due to a safety flaw, costing them considerable income from subsidy and selling their power.

Sandwick Social Club has been losing out on around £1,000 a month in subsidy on its P35-2 . TheP35-2 was Proven’s biggest turbine model and its flagship machine until a catastrophic mechanical fault resulted in incidents of blades and the rotor head flying off.

After Proven’s financial backers  put it in receivership it was bought up by Irish multinational Kingspan, which  discontinued the P35-2. 

Confidence in the small wind sector has been badly damaged by the three major business collapses of the past two months with Shetland Wind Power’s demise coming  days before Shetland hosts its first conference and exhibition on renewables .