Crowley Carbon to invest €59m in Australia plan

Company also targets growth in Middle East, US, Canada and South America, writes Sean Pollock

CROWLEY Carbon, a Co Wicklow-based energy efficiency company, is planning to invest A$100m (€58.7m) into Australia and New Zealand to combat climate change.

The investment, which is part of a joint venture with Australian business Climatech, will take place over the next five years as part of a global expansion plan.

Crowley Carbon’s investment in the region will include funding his car business, Electrifi, and Cool Planet Experience, a live-action climate change experience, in Sydney.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, founder Norman Crowley, who recently raised €31m in new funding, said that he plans to achieve global expansion. He is also targeting moves in the Middle East, US, Canada and South America.

“There is a huge demand for energy efficiency services over the world. Australia and New Zealand are taking up their part of that,” he said. “We are expanding everywhere, really.

“It’s great because [this investment] is one of our joint ventures that is really working out. Joint ventures are like a marriage; you’ve got to pick the right partner. We’ve found ourselves very lucky that we chose the right partner, because if you pick the wrong one you’ve got a problem.”

Crowley also said that the company had benefited from the economic boom Australia had experienced over the past seven years.

He feels the country as a whole is taking its responsibilities toward climate change more seriously, particularly after the recent wildfires which ravaged much of the country.

“The other thing about Australia is that it has had a rapid expansion as a country over the last five to seven years.

“It has been in a boom for a while now, and it didn’t really experience the global financial crisis that has hurt other countries. It has been growing quite steadily.

“The negative effect of that is that climate change has become a problem over there. You’ve seen over the last six months that the whole continent was practically on fire. Talking to Australians, they’ve been really affected by that.

“Climate change wouldn’t have been a top priority for Australia up until [the wildfires], and now it very much is. It’s much easier to discuss climate change now than it was this time last year.”

The Australian and New Zealand market represents around 15pc of Crowley Carbon’s overall business.

The serial entrepreneur recently said that his firm, which employs 400 people and operates across 26 countries, had revenue of nearly €100m and was on track to double the figure by the end of the year.