In 64 AD, Emperor Nero fiddled as Rome burned. In January 2026, geopolitical fiddling is upstaging the sparks from the climate crisis fuse. Many countries have already experienced glimpses of Mother Nature’s displeasure with mankind’s stewardship of the earth. On 24th January 2025, she gave us Irish folks “explosive cyclogenesis” AKA a “weather bomb” from the Atlantic called Storm Éowyn. The storm set a record for the highest 10-minute sustained wind speed at 142 km/h and 50 million trees were blown over. The unprecedented storm brought widespread damage to electricity infrastructure on the island of Ireland. There is no time for fiddling anywhere on this planet. It is NetZero or bust for us all.
I was lucky enough to be part of the international team of concerned power utility people back in 2016 who decided to pool resources to change the way we innovate. We knew that none of us has a monopoly on wisdom. We also recognised that “What got you here, will not get you there”…so how could we change things up to transition to a low carbon economy. The FREE ELECTRONS™ program was thus born of necessity to tap into the largest pool of lateral thinkers and creative problem solvers – the world’s Tech Startup Entrepreneurs.
The challenge was how to get cool visionaries to cooperate with boring utility people like me. Let’s set up a cool accelerator program to be the interface platform was the answer. We utility people might come with lots of safety, governance, and regulatory “baggage” in the eyes of the startups, but we will also roll out the right solution for our customers at scale and happily showcase it to other utilities. That collective eighty million strong customer base of the utility partners is an attractive channel to market for any startup.
ESB alone has completed a new startup contract every two months since the first program edition in 2017 and that is on an upward trend recently. ESB signed nine new FREE ELECTRONS™ startup contracts in 2025. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the pressure to find new NetZero solutions has never been greater. Secondly, the rate of change of technology boosted by AI driven design tools is also faster than ever before. So, greatest need meets firehose of innovative solutions. Having the FREE ELECTRONS™ – global radar, fast filter, and super-efficient selection and procurement machine – already custom built for this challenge, is paying extra dividends for utilities, startups and all our customers as we strive forwards to NetZero at pace. We got lucky, some say, but we know luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity!
Power utilities and electricity network operators are naturally risk averse because of the huge weight of responsibility to keep the lights on, no matter what happens. But ESB is not just talking NetZero talk. ESB ended coal generation in June last year ahead of schedule, and four months later won the auction with our Danish partners, Ørsted, to develop the Tonn Nua offshore wind farm. So, we replaced 900MW of coal for a future 900 MW of wind power!
ESB is excited to collaborate with our FREE ELECTRONS™ utility partners CLP, EDP, E.ON, Hydro Québec and Origin Energy in 2026. We are also excited to continue our ecosystem engagement with DENA, EnergyLab, HKSTP and InnovateUK. The smart money says we can do best for our customers and the planet by working together with the best and brightest from around the world. A global problem needs global collaboration to solve it.
The looming climate crisis knows no borders, but fortunately human ingenuity has no limits. Let us see if we can build on the recent record startup numbers from all corners of the globe. Let us see if we can redouble our efforts to put new tech to good use protecting our environment and securing affordable energy for all. If the winds of change are blowing hard, then let us harness them to good use and brew up a storm of positive energy together!
John McKiernan
Head of Innovation Pipeline
John McKiernan is Head of Innovation Pipeline at ESB, the Irish state-owned power utility. John is responsible for identifying new technologies & innovative business models to provide energy customers with better solutions and accelerate ESB’s journey to NetZero. John is a power sector specialist with 35 years of international development experience including 8 years in Tokyo. John was previously Partner at Greencoat Capital – the adviser to ESB’s €200m Cleantech Investment Fund. John is a founding partner of FREE ELECTRONS™ – the global utility accelerator program & member of the advisory committee to UK Government’s OFGEM Strategic Innovation Fund.
