Ambition North Wales sets up supplier directory to feed Clean Energy Fund projects

Ambition North Wales has started building a Renewables Supplier Database, a public online directory of North Wales-based installers and building-fabric contractors, as its Clean Energy Fund fields about 100 enquiries from organisations planning solar, battery and EV charging projects.

The regional body said the directory would be searchable by specialism and county, and that it intended to share it with organisations enquiring about the fund once it was established.

Denise Creed, Energy Delivery Project Officer at Ambition North Wales, set out the thinking in a piece published on 21 October. She said finding a local installer could be surprisingly difficult, adding: "Search results often favour larger companies with the resources to maintain a strong online presence."

Who can join

Ambition North Wales said it wanted to hear from businesses working in solar, wind and hydro, as well as battery storage, heat pumps and EV charging infrastructure. It said there was also a place for contractors and service providers whose work cuts energy use in buildings, including insulation and other improvements to the building fabric.

The body said it was interested in what a business could deliver, the services it offered and the relevant accreditations it held, and that a business did not need to be large to take part.

It stressed that the database is not a procurement framework or an accreditation scheme, and that inclusion does not guarantee work, appointment or endorsement by Ambition North Wales.

Ambition North Wales is working with Sell2Wales to encourage businesses to sign up. Two webinars are being planned, along with a meet the buyer event in the New Year. Businesses are already joining, and can find out more through the Renewables Supplier Database notice on Sell2Wales or by emailing ynni@uchelgaisgogledd.cymru.

Creed said: "Helping local suppliers access projects gives them opportunities to grow and can help retain more of the value of clean energy investment within North Wales."

The fund behind it

The directory is designed to sit alongside the North Wales Clean Energy Fund, which Creed's piece describes as a £25m fund supporting private and voluntary sector projects. Ambition North Wales's own project page, its business case approval announcement and its first-project announcement give the figure as £24.6m, while a December fund-advisor announcement said the project would allocate £25m via loans and grants.

According to the project page, the fund is split into three sub-funds, each running over five years and for capital spend.

Sub-fund	Value
Private sector	£15m
Voluntary sector	£5m
Reserve (held by Ambition North Wales)	£4.6m

UMi delivers the £15m private sector sub-fund. Loans range from £50,000 to £2m, with interest rates of 5% to 14% depending on risk, the project page said.

The voluntary sector sub-fund distributes 50% as grants of £25,000 to £500,000 and 25% as interest-free loans of up to £250,000, with loans repayable by December 2035, according to the project page. Eligible project types include energy efficiency, decarbonisation and retrofit.

Ambition North Wales announced approval of the fund's full business case on 10 June. It said the fund was expected to generate £100m in regional investment, create over 150 new jobs and reduce carbon dioxide equivalent by up to 125,000 tonnes. Funded projects must be operating within 36 months of receiving investment.

Cllr Gary Pritchard, Leader of Isle of Anglesey County Council and Lead Member for the Ambition North Wales Low Carbon Energy Programme, said at the time that the approval marked a major step forward for the programme.

First project

The first scheme to receive support, announced on 29 July, was Tŷ'n Llan, a community-owned pub in Llandwrog, Gwynedd. Menter Tŷ'n Llan applied through the voluntary sector programme, and the grant supported a ground source heat pump, ground-mounted solar PV panels and EV charging points.

Growth Deal context

The Clean Energy Fund is one of five projects in Ambition North Wales's Low Carbon Energy programme, alongside Egni, Cydnerth (Morlais), the Holyhead Hydrogen Hub and the Trawsfynydd Innovation, Business and Skills Centre. The programme targets up to £335m of net additional GVA, up to 1,035 new jobs and at least 314MW of low carbon electricity in the region.

The programme sits within the North Wales Growth Deal, signed in December 2020, which secures £120m from the Welsh Government and £120m from the UK Government. Ambition North Wales says the deal's five programmes are intended to generate over 4,000 jobs and increase GVA by £2.4bn by 2036.

The next steps for the directory are the two Sell2Wales webinars and the meet the buyer event planned for the New Year.