Companies that have expressed interest in the Green Deal have been urged to push forward with their plans by energy consultancy Utilitywise.

The latest DECC figures show over 58,000 initial Green Deal Assessments have been carried out, but only 419 have progressed any further.

Utilitywise said a slow start was “to be expected” but interest was growing in the scheme.

Tim Hipperson, Director of Energy Services said there are huge savings to be made but warned there are limitations: “There are companies who will be able to take advantage of the Green Deal and for those firms it will be well worth taking part. We strongly encourage commercial organisations to look at the Green Deal as a relatively risk-free way to finance energy efficiency improvements within their buildings. However, of those 58,000 surveys, still only a handful are non-domestic.

“For non-domestic users, the Green Deal is initially quite costly – a new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is required and must be paid for – and this is proving to be a deterrent.”

ELN’s Vicky Ellis was less optimistic about the DECC scheme in a recent blog.