Why mainland Europe? Why now?

In spring 2022, Anesco revealed ambitious plans for European expansion and announced the opening of its first two subsidiaries outside the UK – Anesco Netherlands and Anesco Germany.

Here, Mark Futyan, Anesco CEO, explains why the timing was right to enter these new markets and what growth opportunities he sees ahead.

For the past decade, Anesco has been pioneering low carbon technologies and energy efficiency in the UK. Our goal has been to accelerate the country’s transition to a low carbon energy system.

To date, our development and EPC teams have designed and constructed more than 130 solar farms and energy storage facilities. Our operations and maintenance team has built up a portfolio of more than 24,000 assets under management. While our energy efficiency team has helped raise more than 350,000 people out of fuel poverty.

We have never been afraid to push boundaries and this has seen us achieve many industry firsts along the way; from being the first company in the country to install grid scale battery storage, to being first to retrofit solar with storage and developing the UK’s first subsidy-free solar farm, Clayhill.

As an ambitious and growing company, international expansion has been on the cards for some time. We successfully completed our first international projects – a trio of solar farms for Shell in the Netherlands – in 2020 and 2021, but Brexit has made operating purely from the UK increasingly difficult. We also need a local presence to build our project pipeline and to serve our international clients effectively.

We are fortunate to be a longstanding player in the UK – one of the world’s most established solar markets and the first large scale energy storage market. The skills and experience we have built at Anesco are therefore highly deployable internationally.

We launched our first subsidiary outside of the UK, Anesco Netherlands, in March 2022 and we are currently building a local team from our base in Amsterdam.

Germany and beyond

But the Netherlands isn’t the only country where we see potential for Anesco to play a meaningful role in an expanding market.

Germany is another market we believe is a great fit for Anesco’s existing skills and expertise, with the government looking once again to renewables to support its net zero ambitions. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has added further urgency, prompting European leaders look to end their dependency on Russian oil and gas and improve domestic energy security.

In contrast to The Netherlands, we have taken our first steps into the German market through M&A and in May 2022 we acquired Aeos Energy, an established renewable energy business.

By capitalising on the existing reputation and operational capabilities of Aeos Energy and combining it with our own scale and expertise, we believe we have a strong proposition. As well as commercial and residential solar, Aeos Energy also has a significant track record in onshore wind development. This is a renewable technology we are keen to develop so I’m excited to see where that new avenue leads us.

One thing that Anesco will be bringing to both these markets is our strong track record in battery storage. Whereas both countries are already maturing in relation to solar and wind generation, storage has yet to reach the levels of the UK.

While the business case for standalone batteries is less clear in well inter-connected European markets, we do see opportunities for co-location with renewable generation, and managing grid constraints.

The future

As for what lies ahead? Anesco will be targeting sustained growth across all our chosen markets.

Our headcount increased by 20% over the past nine months, seeing us now employ around 210 staff. We anticipate this number will grow by a further 20%-30% over the next two years with roles based across the UK, Netherlands and Germany.

Our growth trajectory reflects that of the rapidly expanding industry in which we operate. As a result, we plan to more than double our revenue in the year ahead.

We also have our sights set on further European expansion, so watch this space!

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