SMEs get £5m fund to improve energy efficiency

Small and medium sized businesses will be able to access a fund worth up to £5 million in order to implement a variety of energy-efficiency measures, a news report on the matter has revealed.

The ReEnergise SmartEnergy Finance fund will help companies for projects valued between £25,000 and £250,000 and includes renewable technologies such as biomass, solar, wind turbines, anaerobic digestion and ground and air source heat pumps. It will also support the financing of energy efficiency measures such as lighting, insulation, building management, monitoring systems and improvements to manufacturing machinery.

The fund was created following an agreement signed between ReEnergise Finance, an independent financial services business and SI Capital, a private equity fund manager. Since we're talking about a private initiative, companies who wish to access these funds should be aware that they will be charged limited fees for financing and there are basic setup and ongoing management costs.

Adam Hewson, Director of ReEnergise Finance said: "Businesses are facing many challenges today. To remain competitive, most Finance and Operations Directors will be continually reviewing their cost lines. Increasingly for many, expenditure on energy has become or is fast becoming a critical factor in overall business profitability.

"The imperative is to reduce energy use (and therefore costs) and to consider how energy efficiency and cheaper, sometimes subsidy-backed, renewable energy generation can lower energy costs in the medium term."

Implementing an efficient Building Energy Management System is another effective method that will enable companies to cut their overall energy bills.

Building Energy Management Systems are capable of delivering extensive monitoring and control options, compared to basic controls. They typically employ data from a variety of sources (boiler flow and return sensors, internal and external temperature sensors, occupancy sensors, humidity sensors, etc.), and enable the perfect optimization of a building's boiler-based central heating system.

If you'd like to find out more about the savings enabled by the HeatingSave Building Energy Management System, just contact our dedicated product team, they'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.