Ecotricity is a UK based firm which designs and builds environmentally friendly small wind turbines in Britain by their subsidiary company, Britwind. It was selected for the inaugural EU Gateway | Business Avenues mission on Green Energy Technologies to Korea in July 2016, when Dr Alex Alliston, Ecotricity Head of Sales and Business Development, met several potential clients with whom the company has continued to have fruitful dialogue.

“EU Gateway | Business Avenues is a stimulus for coming and looking at the Korean market”
Alex Alliston, Head of Sales and Business Development, Ecotricity Group Limited (United Kingdom)

 

Thanks to the positive discussions during the mission Ecotricity has developed a collaborative relationship with COENS, Korea’s #1 integrated service provider, who are looking to expand their activities into the renewable energy sector. Since the mission COENS has visited Ecotricity in the UK and Ecotricity has also had a follow-up visit to Busan & Seoul to have meetings with potential customers, arranged and facilitated by COENS.  Both COENS and Ecotricity have worked collaboratively to assess the market potential and how best to address the opportunities identified.

“We are fully convinced that EU Gateway | Business Avenues is an effective way for a small company to understand a market and start business relationships in Asia”
Dr Alex Alliston, Head of Sales and Business Development, Ecotricity Group Limited (United Kingdom)

 

Ecotricity designs and manufactures small turbines whose size makes them suitable for landowners, small businesses or communities that have windy sites to generate their own sustainable, renewable energy and take control of their energy future. Ecotricity’s turbines have the added advantage that they can be connected to the grid or be used off‐grid. With the right level of generation support (e.g. Feed-in-Tariff) Britwind turbines can work as direct-to-grid investments, so they can be interesting to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and project developers, especially in areas where there is limited grid capacity or issues with visual impact of larger wind turbines.

Dr Alliston noted that although Korea had been on Ecotricity’s list of potential markets to explore, it had not been a priority. However, the EU Gateway | Business Avenues mission to Korea provided a fantastic opportunity to understand the market potential of Korea in Green Energy Technologies.

Ecotricity has already applied to a second business mission to South East Asia, and hopes to join the business mission to Korea again in the future. In Dr Alliston’s own words “I’ve already applied for the next one!”