Solar energy company wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise

A Moray-based solar energy company has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development.

AES Solar emerged out of the Findhorn Foundation eco-village in the 1970s and claims to be the oldest solar energy company in Western Europe.

Now it is one of 225 organisations across the UK to be recognised with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the most prestigious business awards in the country.

The company has a turnover of £3.1m and manufactures solar thermal panels – the AES Luminary – as well as designing and installing solar PV systems in collaboration with other specially selected manufacturers.

Increasing awareness of climate challenge issues partly resulting from COP26, as well as concerns about rising energy bills, have led the company to grow its team. The original application for the Queen’s Award indicated a workforce of 22 but this has increased to 32 in the past 12 months.

AES Solar have installed solar panels on buildings as diverse as Balmoral Castle, the Scottish Parliament and the off grid eco dwelling named RIBA House of the Year/Grand Designs in 2018.

MD George Goudsmit welcomed the award, saying: “We are absolutely delighted and over the moon to have this recognition of our work and our wider contribution to sustainability and tackling climate change. I want to thank everybody in the business – we have been in this together and we all care passionately about what we do and how we can do it in as sustainable a way as possible. So this award is very much for the whole team. We hope our success might encourage others to consider their own journey to Net Zero.”