Easy Breezy

“This is our time now,” says Jim, delivering what is perhaps the understatement of a near hour-long interview with the two men at their Granard offices. With the cost of energy, both in production and purchase, rising ever higher, there are few companies worldwide hailed as the zeitgeist in terms of pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in delivering sustainable, independent, affordable renewable power to places previously thought impossible.

“When we set out eight years, our vision was that the world is going to move to distributed power. What we see now, with climate change and the like, a lot of the stuff we predicted back then is starting to happen now. Over those eight years, we’ve been perfecting our work, leaving us now in a very unique place where we have three products that will make a difference in people’s lives.”
The products Jim talks include the Total Energy Solution (TES), designed as a complete low cost energy generation and storage solution offering total off-grid energy independence 24-hours a day.
Second is the Remote Power Unit (RPU), a hybrid wind turbine and solar panel street light capable of providing a permanent, renewable lighting solution free from external electrical power sources.
The product boasts over 50 per cent efficiency in urban areas compared with 10 per cent for leading market competitor products.
It is all made possible through one of Jim’s inventions. A qualified mechanical and environmental engineer, formerly working for Swedish-Swiss giant ABB, a leading global technology company in power and automation, the Granard-native focused specifically in induction systems, specialising in air movement technology. His innovation - a disc placed in front of the turbine blades accelerates the speed at which wind flows past, increasing the level of power produced.

Light bulb moment
The invention followed from a proposition put to Jim by his wife on how the couple could have a quiet, energy-producing turbine located at their Stradone home, and the outcome means turbines could soon be placed in areas previously thought infeasible.
Finally, is Airsynergy’s Passive Air Ventilation Exhaust Louvre (PAVEL), a revolutionary new ducting system that naturally improves a building’s airflow by using outdoor air movement to exhaust internal air, additionally reducing extractor fan energy consumption by up to 50%.
Having raised over €12m in company funding to date, Airsynergy has since signed UK and Irish distribution deals with Cavan-based Obelisk, is in discussions with Germany giant Veolia on similar terms, and has tied up a manufacturing deal with international supply solutions company Flextronics. It all means the Longford-based business is finally beginning to peek out from the confines of their invention shed and begin to breathe the fresh air of sweet success.

Employment
Employing 30 people, and 20 more directly on sub-contracts, Airsynergy products are currently located at 20 different sites in Ireland and the same number internationally.
Jim tells the Celt how he and his fellow founding members had started out the business refusing to take even a basic wage as they worked 14-hour days and pumped blood, sweat and tears into the business perfecting a product for market that were all happy with.
“We have gone through the mill to get to where we are now, with support from small investors, and some big ones too, both locally, nationally and now internationally. They’ve helped us realise a dream. Of course, as our profile begins to get bigger, it’s getting easier to attract that investment because they can now see our products and how good they are but that wasn’t always the case.
“It’s only now the orders are starting to come in the door. It’s only in the last three months or so we’ve gone commercial and the demand for our product, that’s across the range. It’s exciting times,” says Jim, who adds that tempering expectations and media attention served a purpose .
“For the place we were in and, at the time, we wanted things kept quiet. All this new attention is a bit like ‘The Matrix’ for us because this has been our lives for the last eight years. It’s easy now for the media to get excited. Now we can too. We’re happy with the products we’re bringing to market.
“A lot of people around us want to make middle-Ireland the silicon valley of renewable power. We’re definitely light years ahead of everyone else and there’s no reason we can’t. We want, and are confident, that we will get a lot of new investment and we will grow out from here,” states Jim.
It’s not as if Airsynergy has totally gone unnoticed over the past eight years. In 2013, the company received the Engineers Ireland Technology of the Year Award and were finalists for the Irish Times InterTradeIreland Innovation Awards 2014.
Furthermore, heavy-hitters such as former Airtricity CFO in North America and current chairman of Gaelectric, Ciaran O’Brien, have joined the board of a company founded initially by inventor Jim, his four brothers - Andrew, Gerard, Peter, David - and solicitor Adrian.
That burgeoning reputation has leant itself too to attracting some of the best and brightest in the business as Airsynergy look to revolutionise the renewable distributed energy industry. Already they’ve managed to lure Tommy Williamson, former product development director at Kingspan and Stephan Ciniselli, formerly of General Electric, as Chief Revenue Officer and Rod Baldwin, formerly of Glen Dimplex, as sales director, to name but a few.

United Nations presentation
“It’s not like a new mobile phone, it’s the first mobile phone and that’s what makes what we do very unique. At the minute, only 10 per cent of the world’s landmass can use wind energy. But people will look back in time and see that we used to put up turbines and chase the wind. We used to put up these Goliaths off-shore and wherever the wind was. But what we have done is reimagined how to create energy from wind and instead of chasing the wind, capture it,” says Jim, who is set to present the company’s products to the United Nations in New York later this month, August 25.
“We’ve been invited to a discussion on climate change to present how our products can make a difference, particularly in the developing world. Our products currently meet six of the 13 main criteria for the UN’s ambition on climate change,” says Jim.
Adrian explains that the holy grail of distributed power rests on three main pillars- affordability, reliability and an onus that it can be applied anywhere in the world.
“So if you’re living in the middle of the Sahara desert and you need water, but you need energy to drill down into the water table. There are some parts in the world where power is just not always readily accessible. Our products can work anywhere, so they have a humanitarian element as well. That’s as important to us as anything else we do,” says Clones-native Adrian, who serves the company as a legal and licensing expert.

Fundraising
Last year Airsynergy completed a €4.5m fundraising round, more than eleven times the figure the company first sought from potential investors back in 2008-09.
“Our first loan for the business came from my uncle, which we used to open the premises in Granard we currently work from. Before that it was all on bit and pieces of paper on Jim’s kitchen table. That was in 2008. But we have invested our money wisely, starting off building prototypes and launch pads.
“It started off in smaller terms but, as things went on, we attracted strategic investors who contributed sums of €2m, €3m, that kind of thing. Money doesn’t come easy. You have to work for it. We have never been short of money thankfully and our investors have been patient. We’ve met our milestones, above and beyond sometimes. We’ve always been given time to develop what we have always wanted to develop and that has benefited us in the long run. It’s been a very natural progression,” Adrian told the Celt.
Jim concludes by saying that Airsynegy is proud and excited of what the company has achieved to date and the added knock-on effect it has had in boosting the region’s economy as well.
“What we’ve found is this area is a good centralised hub for people travelling from the likes of Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Limerick and Cork. If you look around, our relative success is good for the town and surrounding areas. Shops do well, cafes and bars do well with likes of dinners, we have international customers coming from the likes of Denmark and Sweden next week and they’ll probably stay in the Hotel Kilmore. So it has that knock on effect and we’re delighted it does.”
Jim adds: “Utilities companies in general are very much moving in the direction of distributed power. It’s a paradigm shift. We just happen to be there already with a good, affordable, reliable product and they see the advantages of working with us.
“We started out with a vision. You need one in order to do anything, and you need to know where you’re going with it. There are always steps to get there, it doesn’t happen easily, but if you enjoy your work, and feel you’re making a difference, you’ll get there in the end.”