SURREY — An award-winning Surrey company that described itself as a “world leader” in wind turbines has gone out of business.
A bankruptcy notice on the front door of Endurance Wind Power in the Campbell Heights industrial area on 24th Ave. near 192 St. confirms that the company’s operations are now being overseen by trustee Grant Thornton Ltd.
Endurance chief executive Brad Bardua said the company suffered after government subsidies to small-scale wind turbines dried up in Britain, the company’s prime market. The sharp decline in the British pound also didn’t help.
“It was a variety of issues, one on top of another,” he said in an interview Monday.
Endurance assembled 50-kilowatt turbines at its Surrey plant, and 225-kilowatt turbines in Britain. The company had about 120 employees globally, including some staff in Denmark and Italy, with about 30 in B.C.
Clean Energy B.C. executive director Paul Kariya said: “Most of the market for Endurance Wind Power was not in Canada from day one — it was U.K. and elsewhere. I know they tried hard to tap into smaller project sales opportunities here. It is sad to see them leave.”
Founded in 2007, the company received numerous business awards over the years, including two in 2015: “Fast-track company of the year” from the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards in the United Kingdom, and a business excellence award from the South Surrey and White Rock Chamber of Commerce. The company opened its 40,000-square-foot wind-turbine plant in Surrey in 2014.
According to the Global Wind Energy Council, a record of more than 63 gigawatts of new wind power capacity was brought on-line last year around the world. Total investments in 2015 reached a record $329 billion US, up four per cent from 2014. The global total at the end of 2015 was 432.9 gigawatts, with new installations in China offsetting an economic slowdown in Europe, the council stated.
Rather than feed into large power grids, Endurance clients included farmers who wanted a turbine on their property to power operations.