How does a 15-year-old school dropout and one-time chef become a successful serial — and super-green — entrepreneur with more than 30 startups to his name?

One secret, says Peter Darwell, is a savvy eye for promising new business niches. Beyond that, though, the formula is a tried-and-true one: tonnes of research, years of hard work and dogged persistence.

Darwell, who was a green entrepreneur long before green was in, is today chairman of the Cardiff-based Eco2, which specialises in developing, financing and operating renewable energy projects across the UK and Europe.

One of Darwell’s previous ventures, Economy Power, was launched in 2000 after he saw an opportunity in the electricity market.

“I spent a long time researching — I carried out over 2,000 interviews — and realised that SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) were being substantially overcharged for their electricity,” Darwell says. “By setting up a business, Economy Power, which focused almost exclusively on them, we were able to undercut our rivals and grow extremely quickly.”

At that time, just 2 per cent of the UK’s power came from renewable sources, but Darwell again saw opportunity.

“I saw the potential on offer in renewable energy production and we established Eco2 as a subsidiary to Economy Power,” he says. “We started with some of the easier wins such as landfill gas and onshore wind but have now moved our focus firmly to a £1 billion vision for sustainable biomass in the UK.”

As the renewable industry “really started to get serious” in 2005, Darwell sold Economy Power to E.ON for £45 million but retained Eco2 and its portfolio of renewable energy projects.

“At that time I sensed that the business and the sector were ready to stand on their own two feet,” he recalls.

Not bad for someone who left school at age 15 “with no qualifications” and began his career with several jobs in catering. Later, Darwell joined the assurance brokerage Mildon, earning various financial services qualifications before setting out to start his own first business — Darwell Associates, a financial products firm — at age 33.

While the company was successful, Darwell found himself facing an increasing challenge retaining staff in a competitive field, so decided to seek out a new industry and began studying the energy markets. That led to the establishment of, first, Economy Power, and, later, Eco2.

While finding the right niche is critical for any successful enterprise, Darwell says exhaustive research is also “absolutely critical.”

“You have to know more about whatever it is that you’re doing than anybody else in the room, what exactly you’re trying to achieve, how you’re going to achieve it,” he says. “The devil really is in the detail.”

He adds, “Whoever it was that said it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert wasn’t far wrong — but if anything it will be more with your own business. Instant success only comes after years of hard work!”

Other thoughts from Darwell:

On opportunity: “Every company I’ve been involved with has been about meeting a need and to this day I’m still looking to see what’s going to be in demand tomorrow. If you can be one of the first into a market, you’ve got a huge opportunity.”

On persistence: “Whatever it is that you’re doing you have to be prepared to stick at it. With all of my businesses I’ve always found that success came two feet past the point I thought I could go.”

On future energy trends: “One area that is going to be huge for the UK in the future is tidal energy. Just look at all the factors it’s got in its favour — it’s free, it’s limitless and it’s entirely predictable. To make matters even better, Britain has some of the best resources in the world, not to mention a lot of expertise built up from the offshore oil and gas industries.”

On the evolution of green industry: “One of the things that has been interesting to watch over the last five years is the ‘greening’ of the boardroom agenda. Environmental concerns were considered to be a real niche issue at the end of the ’90s, but they are now accepted as being absolutely paramount to every part of the business, from brand value through to risk litigation … That’s not to say that there are not still opportunities out there though and I think increasingly we’ll see the insurance companies take a lead on environmental issues — they have most to lose after all.”

On the quest for ‘green shoots’: “I think we are starting to see some signs of recovery — if the green shoots aren’t yet showing, the seeds are certainly in the ground! I think renewables will be at the very front of the process. There is clear political will to create a low-carbon economy — and we have a lot of the resource and expertise already. In many senses, the challenge is to make sure that we don’t lose ground to our competitors, as we did in the ’80s to Germany and Denmark with the wind industry … If we do that, then I see no reason why the environmental sector can’t lead us out of the recession. It could even one day become a key economic indicator, like housing or retail!”

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