Exergyn, an Irish cleantech company, has announced the creation of 15 roles in line with the opening of its new office in Rugby, Eastern Warwickshire, England. It is currently hiring for new positions across engineering, with an emphasis on sustainability.
Exergyn invested £500,000 (about €583K) in the new centre, redesigning it for its new purpose, which will indirectly support more jobs in the region, and allow the company to benefit from an established solid supply chain network across Ireland and the UK.
Exergyn is a clean energy tech producer that specialises in the design and development of unique heating and cooling technologies based on world-class expertise in solid-state shape memory alloy (SMA) materials for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC).
Prototype testing
The new base of operations will be focused on prototype testing and the location will allow the cleantech company to benefit from a highly skilled engineering workforce already present in and around Rugby.
Skills from other advanced manufacturing sectors such as automotive and aerospace can be leveraged by Exergyn. Using its expertise in the application of SMA, Exergyn designs and manufactures thermal management product solutions. These are set to significantly lower carbon emissions and compliance costs in the heating and cooling of buildings and water, both domestic and commercial.
Rugby Borough, as part of Warwickshire county and the wider West Midlands, has been very successful in attracting investment in green energy and zero-carbon transport technologies.
The region is home to the Manufacturing Technology Centre, and to major brands such as Cadent, London EV Company, and GE Power Conversion. Net zero carbon transport technologies in Coventry and Warwickshire already account for about 50,000 jobs in the area.
Given the strong presence of manufacturing companies, Rugby has become the ideal location for businesses such as Exergyn as it provides direct access to well-established suppliers of materials and components. This, combined with access to talent within the area will enable the commercial production of groundbreaking, clean technology products.
Mass-manufactured clean energy technologies
Figures from the IEA show that the global market for key mass-manufactured clean energy technologies will be worth about €758bn a year by 2030 – more than three times today’s level.
This would see clean energy manufacturing jobs more than double from six million to nearly 14 million by 2030. According to the UN, in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and maintain life on earth, global temperature increase needs to be kept to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The extensive innovation being undertaken in both Dublin and Rugby has the potential to positively impact the wider society in the long term.
Co-founder and CEO Dr Kevin O'Toole said: "As an Irish company, this is a very exciting time for Exergyn. We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to have a new base in a region where engineering pedigree has always been held in such high regard and look forward to recruiting new R&D positions.
"Rugby and the surrounding communities have so much to offer from their well-connected supply lines to the wealth of experience from a multitude of disciplines already present in the area. We look forward to making this our UK home and, in turn, we hope we can offer the community part of ourselves and to add to the growing development of cleantech in Rugby.”