October 21, 2025

In October 2010, Silvio co-founded Innasol to bring ETA biomass boilers to the UK. 15 years later, the business has grown and expanded as a provider of renewable heat and power, and as a leading sustainability partner for businesses across the country.

We sat down with Silvio to talk about why he decided to start a renewable energy business, the challenges and successes of the Innasol journey, and the future of the business and sustainable power in the UK.

How and why did you decide that you would set up a renewable energy company?

I was CEO of Internorm for eight years. Internorm is Europe’s biggest window brand, and because windows contribute heavily to the energy efficiency of a building, we were focusing on energy efficiency. So, in thinking about sustainability, I discovered that there are ways to heat a building other than oil and gas. At the same moment, I realised that there were excellent renewable energy companies in Austria with market-leading standards and products.

That was one part of it. The other part is why start a business? It was simply a desire of mine. I became CEO at age 35, did it for eight years, and my unfulfilled business-related wish was to found and run my own company. And to do that, you can, of course, invent something, or you can create a service, but I have always been in sales, marketing, and distribution, so it seemed to me that the obvious path was either to find a great product abroad and bring it to Austria, or find an Austrian product and sell it overseas.

I met my cofounders, Roland and Bernd, who had strong links to the UK through their consultancy business, and I had some UK market experience from launching Internorm’s window business in the UK. The recently announced Renewable Heat Incentive [RHI] was a big driver too.

How did you decide that it was ETA boilers that you wanted to distribute?

We had a clear idea from the start that we wanted to work with ETA. There are a number of good biomass boiler manufacturers in Austria, but our analysis showed that ETA was the right one. It was number two in terms of size, after Fröling, but in terms of technology, product quality, and speed of development, it was unique.

I had already met the leaders of ETA at the Upper Austria Business Gala, where I was representing Internorm at the awards. We won in the large business category, and ETA who had won in the medium-sized business category.

We simply knocked on their door and asked to speak about selling their products in the UK. At that time, they didn’t even have an English-language price list, and one of my first tasks in the partnership was to translate the price list and all the manuals and certificates.

How did the UK launch go?

We established a distribution system from zero by finding installation partners, which was unique in the sector. Nobody did it that way, through a partner network and managing training, marketing support, and technical support.

It took about six months to get the first order, which was an ETA Hack 200kW boiler going to Scotland, and it was the beginning of a very strong growth story, which saw us become market leaders. Our partner network went from 20 to 50, to 100, and at the high point 250 partners nationwide across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I also think we were unique in that others might have been happy to do a quick sale, but we were only happy to let people sell and install the boilers when they had received proper training.

And of course, in 2020 we acquired Y-Pellets, which was the perfect complement to the business, so that we had the boilers and the fuel ‘under one roof’, as it were.

And in 2023 you founded the Solar PV side of the business.

Yes, there was an obvious synergy. We had our partner network already and a customer base who want renewable energy. We trained our partners to understand solar PV better and assess a business as to whether solar is the right choice for them.

Paul Shearin had worked with us before, and we were still in contact, and we asked him if he wanted to come and develop that side of the business. And solar power is a huge growth area. There are about 20 gigawatts of solar installed today, and set to be 80 within the next 10 years, and that is a huge market opportunity.

And of course we recently partnered with Siemens Financial Services to deliver power purchase agreements, so that businesses can install solar without the upfront investment, so there is such growth potential in solar power and battery storage.

What were some of the biggest challenges that Innasol has faced in the 15 years since you founded it?

Well, Covid was obviously a big one, because like every business, we didn’t know how life was going to go on. We were lucky to an extent because people needed heating, so engineers were still allowed to go to homes and businesses.

Otherwise, selling renewable heat technology can be a roller coaster, because demand can be impacted by government incentives or oil prices, which are volatile. When oil prices are high people look for alternatives, but when they are low, there is less of a financial incentive.

Whatever the challenges though, we are lucky to have a team who are so committed. We all believe in what we are doing, we are all passionate about decarbonisation, and everyone is motivated and innovative, ready to seize new opportunities and develop themselves and the business. Whatever challenges there are, we are ready to face them and overcome them; renewable energy is the future, and we are ready to help businesses decarbonise.

If your business is hoping to decarbonise and wants to explore the low- and no-carbon heat or power options, our nationwide network of green energy experts are on hand for a no-obligation conversation about your ESG goals.

Call 01621 892613 or read our Guide to Green Business Energy to get started.