Glasgow-based Gaia-Wind (
www.gaia-wind.com), a manufacturer of high-performance small wind turbines, has gone into provisional liquidation, putting around 12 jobs at risk.
The company opened its factory in 2011 and has produced nearly 2,000 turbines for customers in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan.
The Renewable UK trade association said that the Government’s failure to set out how it intends to deliver small-scale renewable energy in the future was a key factor in the failure of Gaia-Wind.
It blamed the Government for cuts to the Feed-in Tariff, which supports small-scale renewables and is due to close to new applicants in April 2019.
Executive director Emma Pinchbeck said: “Inaction by Government has real consequences for small businesses and the communities they work with.
“We have warned officials time and again that a failure to treat this issue as urgent puts jobs at risk. We need clarity on the future of small-scale renewables as soon as possible for the sake of other flagship firms and innovative community energy projects nation-wide.”
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy described its support for small-scale renewables as a “UK success story”, with £100 million of funding being made available between 2016 and 2019.
A spokesperson said: “We are committed to the growth of the renewable-energy sector — which already provides 25% of the electricity for the UK.
“However, UK consumers are funding this investment through their energy bills — and as the costs of renewable technologies have fallen, it is right that Government subsidies have reduced in line with this, to make sure we have a sustainable funding model — now and into the future.”