Ghrepower makes the difference by creating jobs

The company helped Ghrepower develop a new technology that allowed wind turbines to function properly even when the temperature drops below 0 C. "When the weather gets cold, the propeller blades of the wind turbine sometimes freeze, but the new technology generates heat internally to prevent this."

Meanwhile, another consultancy firm has done research on the market for small and medium-size wind turbines across Europe for Ghrepower, at Deng's request.

Deng says that such research could easily cost 1,000 pounds to do, but it was given to Deng's team for free as a part of the scheme package.

The scheme also put Deng's team together with many local banks, which provide guidance on how to prepare the right documents to get funding for wind turbine construction.

Installing a medium-size wind turbine would generally cost about half a million pounds for the whole project, and it is hard for Ghrepower's customers to provide this investment by themselves. Therefore Deng's team has been helping their customers in getting bank funding.

"In the past, it has been particularly hard for customers to apply for bank funding for our wind turbines because we only have two years of history in Wales, but the life of a wind turbine is 20 years, so our track record is not enough," Deng says. "In our industry, we say that such wind turbines are not 'bankable'."

One solution his team recently devised is to contribute a part of the capital investment for its customers, in exchange for the subsidy that the British government gives to users of renewable energy.

But the scheme allowed him to meet many banks that specialize in financing small-scale projects, which could be a perfect solution to the funding challenge. "It was very helpful to hear from them the criteria that they judge projects by," he says.

Ghrepower sold its first wind turbine in the UK five years ago through a local distributor. The Scottish government opened a bid to construct a wind turbine next to a recreational facility and Ghrepower won the contract.

Two years ago, Deng set up a subsidiary for Ghrepower in Swansea. While the wind turbines' manufacturing is still done in China, the Swansea subsidiary is in charge of sales, repair and installation.

"We expanded overseas because the wind turbine market in China is restricted by China's immature smart grid system, which is the infrastructure essential for delivering energy generated from wind farms to people's homes," Deng says.

"In comparison, the smart grid market of the UK is very advanced. Another advantage of the UK market is the financial support the government gives to producers of renewable energy, which drives up demand," he says.

Under a feed-in tariff scheme introduced in 2011, homeowners and businesses are paid a cost-based subsidy by the government for the renewable electricity they produce, which includes solar, wind, tidal and others.

For wind energy, the UK government is paying 17.50 pence for each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated if the total amount of power generation is between 100-500 kW.

However, to help its customers take advantage of this scheme, Ghrepower had to undergo the Microgeneration Certification Scheme assessment. Deng says that Ghrepower has already invested one and a half years and a lot of assessment fees to gain this certificate. He believes Ghrepower will receive its certificate within the next three months.

"We are fully confident about our growth in the British market. But at the same time, growing in the British market is an opportunity to accumulate lots of knowledge in this industry to be used at home as China's wind turbine sector matures in the future," Deng says.