Managing director Callum Milne told The Courier that the voluntary step to bring in Begbies Traynor, which has resulted in the loss of 40 jobs, had been taken with “regret”, but was necessary after trading was hit by the “rollercoaster” carbon trading market and a “significant bad debt”.

In a statement, Mr Milne said efforts were being made to redeploy up to 15 of the staff affected by the situation.

Some of those new positions may be within Redwell GB, Mr Milne’s other locally-based business.

“It is with regret that Sustainable Energy Scotland has been placed into voluntary administration,” Mr Milne said yesterday. “The energy efficiency funding market is extremely volatile, often changing on a daily basis.

“Much of our work was funded by Energy Company Obligation, a Government scheme to obligate larger suppliers to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic premises in Britain.

“Recent weeks have seen the carbon price under ECO 2, the second phase of the initiative, crashing to an all-time low, putting companies such as ours in a position that we cannot trade carbon profitably.

“Sustainable Energy Scotland is one of a number of companies that have been forced into this position due to the rollercoaster nature of the carbon trading market.

“The situation was hampered further by a significant bad debt, which placed us in an untenable position.”

SES was formed in 2012 by Mr Milne and his brother-in-law David Small.

By the time the firm moved to its new headquarters at Wester Gourdie Industrial Estate last spring, turnover had reached £1 million and its workforce had grown to more than 40.

“It is sad to hear that another business in the region has gone down,” Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce president Tim Allan said.

“Dundee and Angus is behind the Scottish average for most economic indicators and the loss of any business like this is deeply regretted. Our thoughts are with the employees.”