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Today I had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend and visionary in the world of green technologies, Thomas Weber. I’ve been following Thomas and his team since the early days of their startup Etalytics in 2018. Their goal? To significantly reduce energy consumption at energy-intensive industrial sites. They are already achieving energy savings of more than 50 percent with existing customers – if they succeed in deploying their technology across the board, it will take us a big step closer to a climate-neutral world.
During the conversation, we came across some classic start-up challenges and discussed what needs to change on the energy markets in Germany and Europe in order to move faster towards a climate-neutral future. Here are the most exciting insights from the discussion:
About etalytics: Revolutionizing energy management
etalytics, founded by the ambitious trio Thomas Weber, Niklas Panten and Björn König, has set itself the goal of taking the world of energy management to the next level with the help of AI. The company is developing a software solution that is specifically designed to make industrial energy systems more efficient – especially in the areas of cooling and heating. By properly coordinating the system components, energy requirements can be significantly reduced while maximizing the efficiency of useful energy.
Foundation and development
Etalytics is not just another energy management company. The company is a leader in the use of AI for energy management in industrial environments. Their approach combines innovative AI with a deep understanding of mechanical engineering.
Originally without a concrete market target or a specific problem, Thomas, Niklas and Björn were fascinated by the exciting possibilities of AI and wanted to develop them further as part of their research in mechanical engineering. Niklas and Thomas laid the foundation with their research at the ETA plant at TU Darmstadt.
This technology-driven start-up phase presented the team with major challenges shortly after the company was founded: In order to build a company from the technology, a bridge had to be built between research and marketable application. The team had to learn to take off their research glasses and focus on the requirements of the real world. This process of adaptation and reorientation, away from purely theoretical models and towards practical solutions, was a decisive turning point for etalytics – even if it was associated with some pain.
Challenges and successes
The transition from research to practice required a deep understanding of the complexity and dynamics of real energy systems as well as familiarization with decision-making processes, internal task distributions in onboarding processes and sometimes political circumstances in corporations. These challenges have enabled Thomas and his team to develop innovative solutions that address real problems and offer real added value. The early collaboration with customers, which they were able to build on thanks to industrial research projects, played a decisive role in this.
Uniqueness in competition
The uniqueness of etalytics lies in the combination of precise mathematical models with a powerful platform architecture and accompanying installation, maintenance and onboarding processes.
While the digital twins of other providers are often used primarily for visualization purposes, etalytics’ custom-built digital twin is characterized by its accuracy and robustness and enables efficient operational optimization and autonomous control of the systems. The development of such a precise model requires in-depth knowledge of mathematics and mechanical engineering, which etalytics has successfully integrated into its product development. Their models thus create the balance between accuracy and simplicity that makes it possible to solve complex optimization problems quickly and efficiently in order to control real systems in everyday life and thus save a lot of energy.
“These systems are never operated at the parameters for which they were designed. It’s either warmer or colder or there’s more IT load, there’s less IT load. If you don’t react dynamically, they always run inefficiently.”
Thomas Weber, etalytics GmbH
Success stories: Breakthrough with Equinix
One of the most important milestones was the collaboration with data center provider Equinix, where energy savings of more than 50% were achieved in the data centers’ cooling systems. This success is not just about numbers, but also about the successful learning process – from pure research to real, productive systems – and the potential to achieve real, effective energy savings in critical industrial environments.
Global ambitions
Looking to the future, etalytics plans to spread its highly effective technology worldwide. The focus is on industries with large, centralized supply systems such as data centers, the automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. These industries offer the highest return on investment for energy-saving technologies. The strategy is clear: win customers with homogeneous energy systems, clear decision-makers and a high incentive at C-level for energy savings. These customers promise the fastest onboarding and decision-making processes – this is important so that Thomas and his team do not lose a lot of time in the sales process, but can quickly install and use their software at many locations.
Key findings from the founder’s journey
Finally, Thomas shared some of his key findings with us:
- One of the key lessons Thomas took away from his trip was the opportunity to address real-world problems early on rather than fiddling around with irrelevant solutions. He emphasizes the importance of working with application partners early on to ensure that the technology developed is not only innovative, but also aligned with the practical needs of the industry.
- Thomas also emphasizes the crucial role of a suitable team. He believes in building a team that is motivated and able to work independently without micromanagement. This approach was crucial in order to give him and the other founders enough freedom for the many other challenges of a start-up.
How can you support etalytics in its vision to make the world greener?
In order for etalytics to successfully place its solution on the market, recommendations for new talent would help – but sales contacts, particularly in the energy, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors, would also be invaluable.
If you can help, please write me a short mail in LinkedIn.
Closing: The bigger picture
“There is a whole range of regulations where everyone is aware that they are garbage.”
Thomas Weber, etalytics GmbH
Thomas and I also talked about the big picture: the energy industry is undergoing a transformation – especially with regard to decentralized energy generation. The traditional approach, which was centrally focused on power plants, is being replaced by a decentralized and more complex system. As a result, decentralized intelligence is also required in order to first collect the data and also to be able to control the decentralized systems dynamically.
As exciting as these prospects are for start-up entrepreneurs, Thomas criticizes the slow reaction of traditional energy suppliers, who should have acted years ago but have made little progress to date. The German market in particular is therefore lagging far behind.
Thomas is also calling for deregulation of the energy sector. The energy expert is convinced that some of the current regulations are outdated and hinder the integration of innovative, sustainable energy solutions. He calls for a change in policy that reflects the realities of today’s energy needs and the potential and requirements of renewable energy sources. Specifically, he mentions three points:
Atypical network use:
o Definition: The regulation of atypical grid usage refers to special regulations for consumers who use the electricity grid in an atypical or irregular manner. These regulations can lead to companies that only use large amounts of electricity at certain times or seasonally, for example, being billed or treated differently to regular consumers, which can have both advantages and disadvantages for the companies concerned.
o Thomas’ assessment: An outdated regulation that hinders innovative approaches and does not reflect the reality of today’s energy demand. Instead, companies should be motivated to counteract overcapacity and increase consumption at times when there is a lot of wind and sun. However, this is prevented by the regulation of atypical grid usage.
Intensive network use:
o Definition: The regulation of intensive grid use refers to regulations for consumers who use the electricity grid particularly intensively, such as large industrial companies. These regulations can include special tariffs or conditions for this user group that take into account their continuously high electricity demand and the associated impact on the grid.
o Thomas’ assessment: A concept that no longer has a place in the modern energy industry and hinders the development of new solutions. Large consumers that generate base load and are subsidized for this are counterproductive in the new reality with dynamic generation and more fluctuation.
Service price and working price
o Definition: The power price in the electricity bill refers to the cost of providing the maximum power required by a consumer at a given time, while the energy price represents the cost of the electricity actually consumed, measured in kilowatt hours. This two-tier tariff structure is used to record and bill the costs of energy provision and energy consumption separately.
o Thomas’ assessment: This allocation is an unsuitable calculation method for the integration of renewable energies and hinders the development of modern energy solutions.
Thomas Weber, co-founder of etalytics, began his professional career as a tutor and experienced his “worst job” as a laborer on a construction site. Today, as Chief Sales Officer and Managing Director, he is at the helm of etalytics, an innovative company in the field of energy management and energy intelligence. His journey from humble beginnings to successful founder is a testament to his ambition and innovative strength.
Thomas highly recommends “The Coaching Habit”, a book that has strongly influenced his approach to leadership and management.
Learn more:
etalytics.com LinkedIn Jobs
Transparency note: Text and images on this page were created with the help of AI.
