Renewable energy start-up seeks £10m investment

A new eco-friendly energy supplier is currently looking to raise £10 million from investors.

Greenrock Energy Limited plans to become an industry leader across Europe in ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems.

GSHP energy is a highly efficient technology, using the solar energy stored just below the earth’s surface to heat buildings. It can also be used to cool buildings by sending heat back underground.

GSHP systems typically produce up to 6.5 units of output energy for every unit of input, and can reduce carbon emissions by more than 50% compared to energy created using fossil fuels.

Greenrock has the backing of former energy minister Brian Wilson, who has joined Greenrock’s board of directors.

Wilson said: ““As a long-time advocate of both renewable energy and greatly improved energy efficiency in our building stock, I believe that Greenrock is offering both an excellent option to consumers and a correspondingly attractive offer to investors.

“It represents the kind of lateral thinking required to make green jobs and a greener economy a reality.”

Cameron McColl, Greenrock chairman, added that GSHP systems are a “significant weapon” in the battle against climate change.

“They are scalable, predictable, reliable and unobtrusive,” he added.

GHSP does not use energy from the earth’s core, but incident solar energy that has become trapped beneath the earth’s surface over many years.

It has so far struggled to be taken up in UK building projects because of high up-front costs.