Smart50 rank: 6
Revenue: $17,219,737
Growth: 207.64%
Founders: Dewayne Montey, 45
Head Office: Queensland
Employees: 16
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.ecovation.com.au
Dewayne Montey’s solar panel and hot water company Ecovation survived one of the biggest disasters a growing company can face – the sudden loss of a major project.
In 2008 the company became one of the first companies in Queensland to win a large scale contract to install solar hot water systems and solar panels with Queensland’s Logan City Council.
When Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced a $3 billion program to roll out a solar hot water program a year later Ecovation was one of the successful partners and the company geared up to fulfil its huge new contract.
But after just six months the program was dead. The Federal Government’s decision to scale back renewable energy subsidies following its insulation debacle meant the Queensland Government program was now unsustainable – and Ecovation was left hanging.
“We were left sort of dangling in the air with all this investment in becoming a hot water manufacturer,” Montey says.
Undaunted, he returned to the Logan City Council and started a new highly-successful neighbourhood solar rollout campaign, which has been part of the reason for the company’s explosive growth. Average annual revenue growth over the past three years has been 207.64%, while revenue in 2010-11 was $17.2 million.
That is particularly impressive given the turbulent state of the solar market, which has seen a number of companies – most notable industry pioneer Solar Shop – collapse in the last six months.
Montey says the roller coaster nature of the market has made him wary about expanding too quickly.
“I’ve been pretty wary of going national. Our business model could have had us number one nationally, but I am a bit reluctant to spread more resources too thinly,” he says.
But he believes the solar industry is well placed to get through this difficult period.
“The uptake of solar has been spectacular and like most things that run hard their must come a time for a breather and that is what has taken place,” he says.
“The fundamentals for solar are still in place. The strong Australian dollar means for the same as what it cost to buy electricity instead we can all now switch to clean solar energy generation.”
But Montey remains angry about the fact that major energy companies which operate coal-fired power plants have been allowed to sell in the retail solar market and believes they have been manipulating the price of the renewable energy certificates (also known as Small Scale Technology Certificates) by flooding the market with cheap solar systems.
He says that means the big energy companies can buy the certificates they need for the generators on the cheap.
“It’s a travesty to have the polluters participating in the renewable energy sectors,” he says.
