Farmers, telecoms firms and schools are among the diverse customers using small wind turbines designed and built by Loughborough’s Evance Wind. Each turbine is able to regulate how much power it feeds into the energy grid, and has sensors that show when they need to be serviced. Under chief executive Kevin Parslow, the firm has commercialised its technology and grown overseas, leading to sales growth of 144% a year, from £497,000 in 2009 to £7.3m in 2012. Foresight Group has provided £5m backing over four funding rounds since 2006.