A Denbighshire company has won a prestigious national award at Wales’s renewable energy ‘Oscars’.

Hafod Renewables have been crowned Wales’s Renewable Heating Installer (RHI) of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff.

The award was given for their range of work across the rapidly growing RHI sector which includes air and ground-source heating, solar thermal and biomass.

David Jones, 32, Managing Director of Hafod Renewables, said afterwards: “It’s a real honour to have won this award against opposition from all over Wales and it’s a tribute to the work of the whole team here at Hafod.

“For a long time renewable heating seemed to be all about solar power but in the last couple of years the other sectors have been developing so quickly that they seem to be overtaking solar power, especially as far as we’re concerned.

“Eighty per cent of our work used to be solar panels and we have installed over 10,000 of them since we started in 2010 but in the last two years that has shrunk to less than 40 per cent.

“RHI schemes now make up two thirds of our work and while solar is still important, more and more people and businesses are looking at air and ground-source heat pumps, biomass and solar thermal systems.

“We aim to be versatile and to be able to design bespoke solutions for our clients which we carry out ourselves, using our own teams of installers.

“The range of renewable solutions is growing and becoming more sophisticated and you have to keep abreast of the latest developments like the high temperature air-source system which are revolutionising the market.

“They are very efficient, come with a 25-year guarantee and pay for themselves in about five years and they attract Renewable Heat Incentive payments which can amount to a few thousand pounds a year for 20 years.”

Gary Braybrooke, Chief Executive of the Energy Efficiency Association, said: “The key to Hafod’s success was their attention to detail, their professionalism and their customer care, they really look after the client.

“The quality of their work is outstanding and their entry was backed up by so many testimonials provided by satisfied customers and by the suppliers they use.”

David, a former Holywell High School pupil who has also been short-listed in the Young Business Leader section of the Wales Business Insider Awards, launched Hafod Renewables in a small shop in Denbigh with his father, Richard, eight years ago.

The business now occupies a 125 square metre industrial unit on the town’s Colomendy Industrial Estate, employs nine staff and has become a key player in North Wales in the renewables sector.

As well as the domestic market they have fitted renewable energy systems to almost 100 farms, to the new Holywell ‘super’ school, businesses, including one of Wales’s biggest boatyards, and a rugby club as well as providing biomass boilers and air and ground-source heating systems.

He has also gone off-grid at his home in Trefnant, in the Vale of Clwyd, where all their energy needs, including those of the electrically-powered cars he and his partner, Jen Hay, run are met from renewable resources.

He and his family have a strong claim to being the ‘greenest’ in Wales, saving the planet and themselves a packet of money –£6,000 a year.

Meanwhile Hafod Renewables’ turnover has grown to over £1.3 million in the last year and David defeated eight rival candidates to be elected onto the national board of industry body the Ground Source Heat Pump Association.

He has also been asked to give a video interview for the National Assembly for Wales’ Outreach team as part of research for the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on an inquiry into Low Carbon Housing.

Hafod are also approved partners for some of the biggest names in the renewable industry including Mitsubishi, Daikin and Kingspan and one of the UK’s largest underfloor manufacturer Uponor.

David said: “The UK recently saw 30 per cent of its power produced by renewable sources – who would have believed that was possible even five years ago.

“In just a few years almost everyone will be driving electric cars and by then that figure of 20 per cent will be dwarfed by the power being produced by solar, wind, tidal and other renewables.

“It’s very exciting to be part of what is a power revolution in this country and beyond – things are changing so fast now and that is only going to speed up as technology really gets to grips with the challenges.”

For more on Hafod Renewables go to https://www.hafodrenewables.co.uk/