From left: Declan Barrett, Kevin Maughan and Graham Deane. Image: UrbanVolt
Irish start-up UrbanVolt is set to start supplying solar energy to businesses at prices up to 30pc lower than traditional providers.
Dublin-based clean energy company UrbanVolt is set to start supplying solar-generated electricity directly to businesses in Ireland. It will finance and install solar panels on the rooftops of its customers and sell the generated electricity to them.
The team, led by Kevin Maughan, Graham Deane and Declan Barrett, said it plans to charge clients up to 30pc less than traditional electricity suppliers.
According to the company, traditional providers typically charge between 15 and 20 cent per kilowatt hour, but UrbanVolt expects to charge companies as little as 10 cent for the same. It also plans to guarantee the same price for 25 years to protect businesses against rising energy costs.
UrbanVolt was founded in 2015 at Dublin City University’s Alpha innovation campus and won Google’s Adopt a Startup competition at the end of 2018.
It started out as a lighting-as-a-service business, helping corporate clients to upgrade to LED lighting for a monthly service fee and no upfront capital cost, with the aim of improving energy efficiency and reducing energy costs.
It recently raised €7m in funding from investors including the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, and its clients include Pfizer, Zimmer Biomet, Syncreon and Heineken.
Maughan, who is the company’s CEO, said the solar energy roll out will help save businesses money. “But the real value is that it enables businesses to take direct action to reduce their carbon footprint,” he added.
“Given how frustrated businesses are waiting for the energy companies to get moving on the climate agenda, we believe it will have huge appeal. This is how you can make rapid progress on rolling out green, clean energy and the time is right to begin doing it in Ireland.
“Essentially, UrbanVolt now offers affordable, clean energy on both sides of our customers’ roofs. Businesses in Ireland have been overcharged and undervalued by the traditional energy companies for too long, and we are proud to be driving real change in the market.”
