Companies going bust

Somecamel · Jul 3, 2012

Three companies that I know of in my area have gone bust recently, the ones with the nice vans that is

Had my NAPIT renewal email through today for August- Need to decide what to do

Any of you guys going to continue or call it quits?

Gavin A · Jul 3, 2012

I've wanted to be a solar installer since I was a kid really, so I'm riding this roller coaster all the way.

I'm getting really really sick of the sheer level of incompetence we're experiencing from DECC, Ofgem, MCS etc though, which is making this all so much harder than it should be, and am seriously concerned about whether we'll make it through the winter unscathed or not.

I reckon those that do make it through this winter will probably be ok, unless the wave of bankruptcies further undermines public confidence in the industry and reduces uptake even further. They'd best sodding well bring RHI for domestic installs in next spring / early summer though, as we need that to give us extra work in the quiet times for PV.

SolarCity · Jul 4, 2012

We have a family business and we're split on how we continue.

I'm a green enthusiast, not just a solar PV installer, so I'm keen to keep going. I originally took our firm towards solar panel installation about 8 years ago and it was initially a very bad decision - it was only a couple of years ago that we went back into it. Now we have the same thing again, half the family utterly hate the industry and want to move back towards electrical installations and a couple of us want to stick with renewables.

I've priced a ground mounted system at 16p (as planning means he will miss 21p) and the payback is just under 10 years - we priced this right at the bone. So 16p could be achievable but I maintain that the domestic market will fall away and commercial will be the main option.

Energetic · Jul 4, 2012

We made a decision early on to stay small and lean and flexible. We had a feeling the government would mess us around and resisted the temptation to expand when demand heated up.

There are only 2 of us, we don't employ anyone or have a premises so our overheads are low. We bring a couple of guys on day rate as we need them, we pay them well so they are available as required.

We have built up a good reputation locally and rarely work more than 15 miles from home. We have protected our margins and don't get involved in price wars so don't need a massive throughput of jobs to do well. We are here to stay if things stay more or less as they are.

When we're busy we work hard, when we're not, we go fishing...

SRE · Jul 4, 2012

Energetic said:
We made a decision early on to stay small and lean and flexible. We had a feeling the government would mess us around and resisted the temptation to expand when demand heated up.

There are only 2 of us, we don't employ anyone or have a premises so our overheads are low. We bring a couple of guys on day rate as we need them, we pay them well so they are available as required.

We have built up a good reputation locally and rarely work more than 15 miles from home. We have protected our margins and don't get involved in price wars so don't need a massive throughput of jobs to do well. We are here to stay if things stay more or less as they are.

When we're busy we work hard, when we're not, we go fishing...

Bit like us really (apart from the 15 miles we've virtually no houses within a 15 mile radius! but we do work within what is considered "local" for where we are), we're hanging in until next year. I think things will settle a bit and customers will have lower expectations. 10 - 12 year payback on a system that will generate electric which is increasing in cost annually for 40 years is still a good proposition. We just need to re-educate the public. We have fingers in other pies, a bit of time to wait things out and want a lifestyle business linked to green technologies.

The thing that will tip the scales for us is if we can't get the D rating issues resolved. That's our biggest barrier at the moment.

dansk · Jul 4, 2012

same here, email came through today, we are renewing, i figured that one job in a whole year will still cover the annuel registration, im the same as energetic, and didnt grow in the good times and im so pleased we didnt, as most know we do other things also and im debating taking on a new MCS technology, the future is renewable which ever route we take.

I love doing solar, jist wish there was more of it.

Somecamel · Jul 4, 2012

Had some good news today, my biggest competitor in the area's showroom is up for Lease (£16500pa) and have been told he's vacating end of August. More work for me

solarsavings · Jul 4, 2012

I re-newed ours this week knowing it will be a very small part of our work in future.

Gavin A · Jul 4, 2012

It looks like I've just about filled our books for the month with 3 x 10kWp installs at the end of the month filling most of our installation slots, which will make 5 x commercial 3 phase installs this month.

This is going to be the sector we're going to have to increasingly target to justify keeping our staffing levels up, and office and warehouse on instead of downsizing to reduce our overheads.

It's a real problem though that YEDL are now taking 65 working days to turn around G59 applications, although I think we've found a way of making this work for us, as we should now have a 10kW job this month, with 20 or 40kW to follow in August for someone we submitted an application for in May but have now been told we'll not get an answer for until mid august. Having that in August will be an absolute life saver really if we can pull it off.

Sorry, I'm thinking out loud a bit here, but I'm finally feeling a bit more positive about the money we've lost over the last few months just paying the wages, rent etc for more than double the number of staff we needed for the level of work we had coming in. It's definitely all got a hell of a lot harder though, and the margins have got a lot tighter.