Renewable Partnerships was begun by Charles Eves in 2012. Charles had become aware of London based wind turbine developers paying handsomely for ready-to-go turbine sites and he saw a commercial opportunity in working up ‘digger ready’ opportunities. By establishing a partnership arrangement with several N Ireland landowners, Charles obtained turbine planning permission, site access and grid-connection on their behalf and then managed the on-sale to relevant generation companies.
The ROC subsidy that enhanced the turbine viability could also be applied to commercial solar installations. Investment Fund Managers like to be able to offer Green investment opportunities to their clients and would willingly pay for larger commercial and industrial installations from which they could take the subsidy as a ‘return’ – so Renewable Partnerships expanded further into this growth area, contracting 850,000 kw of paid-for solar installation on to N Ireland industrial roofs.
Simultaneously Gary Sims, a long time friend of Charles, was developing Fathom EE – an environmental and energy consultancy. A core part of the service offering that Gary introduced to his clients was a sophisticated buying strategy so that clients could match their utility buying in a way commensurate with their corporate goals. Depending on whether clients were risk-averse or risk-sympathetic Gary would facilitate a fixed, floating or a managed ‘hedge’ relevant to the objectives and risks agreed. Gary observed at this time that there were few quality professional electricity brokers in N Ireland but although he sensed a strong commercial opportunity it wasn’t a venture that he wanted to undertake solo. It was a business that would much better suit a ‘partnership’ relationship.
Working in the same ‘space’ with a similar approach to business, ethics and people there was a very strong ‘fit’ for a partnership arrangement it was inevitable that Renewable Partnerships would become a jointly owned venture between Charles and Gary. This was formalised in 2016.
The primary focus of the new team from this point was to grow a customer base of organisations who would benefit from expertise in electricity buying. By 2021 over £42,000,000 of annual electricity purchasing was managed by Renewable Partnerships across a variety of customer propositions. As clients have increasing expressed frustration with their gas billing Renewable Partnerships has assisted with better buying arrangements and effective tendering for this utility, managing over £5,200,000 of gas purchasing each year.
The Environmental Green origins of the organisation are important to Gary and Charles. Almost 40% of clients choose to have electricity which is supplied to the grid from Renewable Sources and Renewable Partnerships is able to facilitate this progression. Partnerships have also been established which partner-organisations that allow us to offer fully-funded EV chargers for clients wishing to facilitate the move away from the automotive internal combustion engine. London based Osprey Charging and Guernsey based Plug-n-Go will fund EV installations for destination points such as Golf Clubs, Garden Centres as well as current fuel stations. The roll-out of charging points across Ireland will be a core element to the accelerated adoption of electric vehicles and Renewable Partnerships are the appointed representative in Ireland for these companies.
Helping organisations reduce their carbon footprint has been a central objective of the Renewable Partnerships – part of a collective goal towards Future Net Zero. Funded and non-funded LED solutions are available through our partnerships. We have other partnerships for heating solutions aimed at dramatically reducing CO2 – and fuel costs.
Renewable Partnerships has become a valued player within Ireland for organisations wishing to manage their utilities in a cost-out and carbon reducing manner. Call us – become part of the story. We would be delighted to meet you and delighted to know more about your organisation.
