Bizstartup.ie - NewsEnergy efficiency start-up to launch iPhone app

Crowley Carbon is an energy-efficiency specialist whose goal is to reduce energy consumption through the application of bespoke technology and intelligence to organisations' existing operations across all areas of waste.

Its new software platform, called ‘DANU’ after the Celtic Goddess of wisdom, will be introduced at The Energy Show hosted by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in Dublin’s RDS on 14 and 15 April.

“Most technologies that seek to assist in the CO₂ reduction process are focused on renewables such as wind, wave and solar projects. These projects are proving to be capital intensive at a time when every spare cent matters and many projects also carry significant technology risks. Crowley Carbon has developed another way of dramatically reducing energy consumption with low risk and rapid payback,” says Crowley Carbon founder and chairman, Norman Crowley.

Accessing energy efficiency information

“Currently many companies want to deploy efficiency technologies but cannot access the complex information required. DANU provides companies with the experience of over 150 global experts in every area of energy efficiency, from complex areas such as motor control and harmonics to areas as basic as lighting. The products will all be chosen to cater specifically for that company’s needs. In a nutshell, it’s Google for energy efficiency.”

Serial entrepreneur with carbon consciousness

Crowley is no stranger to starting new businesses: he founded Trinity Commerce, one of the first e-commerce services companies in the world, in 1994; in 2001 he co-founded Inspired Gaming Group and after that also co-founded “The Cloud”, Europe’s largest Wi-Fi operator, which he sold to 3i in 2005.

“In 2007, I became extremely aware of the global warming threat to the planet. Up until then I hadn’t quite believed the threat was so real and assumed it was the usual media scaremongering. There are however some frightening facts about our global growth projections in GDP and carbon dioxide, like the globally projected 15-fold increase in CO2 output between 2000 and 2050,” he says.

“I believe technology has a major part to play in resolving this threat. Around that time we were extending our home in Dublin and so it was a great opportunity to test out many of the new efficiency and green technologies. While many products barely worked and many others offered paybacks in the 10-30 year timeframe, there were also many that were simple, improved our quality of life and substantially reduced our energy bills.”

Crowley says he was “staggered” that most companies were on the one hand concerned about spiralling energy costs and on the other not making some simple changes.

“In mid-2008 after 12 months of research, which involved visits to Asia and the US, we decided to establish Crowley Carbon,” he explains.