How Surplus Wind Could End Energy Poverty: in Conversation with Alan Wylie of EnergyCloud
by Billy Linehan from AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas
At AWS re:Invent this week, I sat down with Alan Wylie, CEO of EnergyCloud, to talk about one of the most ambitious social energy projects in Ireland. What unfolded was a conversation about technology, poverty, energy policy and the practical ways Ireland can use wasted renewable energy to heat homes.
This article is part of a series of interviews from AWS re:Invent for Irish Tech News.
A career that blends tech and social impact
Alan’s career has followed an unusual path for a tech entrepreneur in Ireland. Trained as a chartered accountant, looking back he commented “I didn’t last long at that, and so I went into tech early on.” He helped scale two CRM companies, including one acquired by Sage. Later he was brought into EuroCommerce, a payments software business serving airlines and the travel industry, and helped scale and sell it twice, the final time to MasterCard.
Between these ventures he repeatedly stepped away for one or two years.
“When I’m in, I’m in,” he told me. “Seven days a week. Then I stop. I take time out. Personal development matters. My family matters. I didn’t want to be one dimensional.”
Running parallel to his commercial life is a long commitment to support organisations with a community focus. He has chaired Barnardos, chaired the board of the Darndale Belcamp Village Centre, and today chairs Southside Partnership.
“I’ve been volunteering since I was 16. I have a social conscience and I’ve always been interested in tackling issues around deprivation, poverty and early intervention.”
Why EnergyCloud was the right next step
One morning perusing LinkedIn, he saw an advert for a CEO job. EnergyCloud at that time was little more than an idea, with no staff and very limited funding. But the mission caught him.
“It was perfect,” he said. “A startup mindset, a social problem, and a way to use my skills.”
EnergyCloud’s core proposition is simple: take surplus renewable energy that Ireland currently wastes and redirect it to households that are in energy poverty.
“Our mission is to end energy poverty. Not ease it, not reduce it. End it.”
Most of this surplus is wind energy. According to Alan, Ireland curtailed roughly 10.5 percent of its wind output last year. Solar curtailment is rising too. In the Northern Ireland, curtailment is even worse.
“It’s wasted. All paid for by taxpayers.”
EnergyCloud began in Ireland and is the first of its kind. Sister initiatives in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Germany have since followed the Irish model.
What is energy curtailment?
Curtailment is the intentional reduction of power generation (like wind or solar) or consumption to balance electricity supply and demand on the grid, preventing instability, overloads, or blackouts, often happening when renewables produce too much energy for the grid to handle, leading to wasted power.
The scale of the problem
Alan cited an ESRI estimate of 550,000 households are in energy poverty. That is about one and a half million people.
These households spend more than ten percent of their net income on energy. Ireland also has some of the highest electricity prices in Europe.
“And last year,” Alan said, “we wasted 450 million euro of renewable energy. This year, from January to September alone, 341 million. That’s 1.4 million euro a day.”
A simple device with immediate impact
The technology is disarmingly straightforward: a smart immersion controller installed in a hot water tank.
“We connect to the public EirGrid signals. When curtailment is happening, we switch on the device. The resident wakes up with a free tank of hot water.”
Installation takes about an hour and costs around 500 euro per home. The difference for families is significant.
“These households often never turn on the immersion. Now they tell us they can wash their kids properly again. They can clean with hot water. It can be transformative.”
At present, curtailment gives roughly one hundred nights of free hot water per year to each household..
AWS support and the path to scale
EnergyCloud is funded by philanthropy and corporate donors. AWS has been one of its earliest and most substantial supporters.
“They backed us from day one,” Alan said, “and that allowed us to scale.”
With AWS support, pilots in Galway, the Midlands and Fingal have grown to hundreds of homes. Cooperative Housing and several local authorities are now key partners.
“We are aiming for thousands across the country. Most of our work is with social housing bodies. It makes rollout faster.”
Beyond immersion controllers
Three further technologies are being tested:
Thermal batteriesA wax-based system with no fire risk. Two pilots are underway in Offaly.
Heat pump optimisationUsing software to run existing heat pumps during curtailment periods.
Smart storage heatersA new trial with Clúid Housing.
“This is when you really lift people out of energy poverty. Hot water is great, but heating the home is the game changer.”
Policy, resistance and political leadership
Politicians who Alan meets tend to be supportive, “I have yet to meet a politician who wasn’t genuinely and wholeheartedly supportive of this initiative.”
He finds that resistance to change is not ideological but tends to be structural.
“You need political leadership. The commitments to ending energy poverty are in the Programme for Government, but they need to be made real. Departments move slowly unless it is on their work plan.”
He describes a familiar Irish pattern: good ideas, then pilots, then years of drift.
Alan is seeking clear, active support from all political parties to accelerate the commitments already made by government.
Message to younger leaders
What advice does Alan offer to young people at an early stage of their careers? “If I was speaking to someone starting out in tech, or in any business, I’d say this: don’t wait until you’re retired to volunteer or get involved. Most people leave it until their fifties or sixties. That’s twenty or thirty years pf personal development lost.
Use your skills in your twenties, thirties and forties. Bring what you’re learning about leadership and problem-solving into the not-for-profit world as you grow. You meet completely different people, you stretch yourself, and you make an impact long before you retire.”
To learn more about EnergyCloud, visit www.energycloud.org.
About Billy Linehan
This interview is part of my reporting from AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas for Irish Tech News, where I am covering how AI is changing our future.
Billy Linehan writes for Irish Tech News on innovation, tech for good and entrepreneurship, covering events in Ireland and abroad. A business mentor with Celtar Advisers, he has worked with hundreds of SME and startup owners. He co-founded StartUp Ballymun, Dublin’s longest-running entrepreneurship series. A deep appreciation of heritage and sense of place runs through his writing and informs how he supports communities.
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