From Larne to Leading Northern Ireland’s Newest Energy Revolution

He is one of the minds behind the company’s revolutionary premise of sharing 50 per cent of all profits with its customers.

The local entrepreneur is no stranger to the energy market, having founded and developed a number of companies in renewable energy development, engineering and software. Jonny commented. “During Covid, I couldn’t believe how much prices had gone up. People struggled to pay their bills, yet energy companies’ profits were soaring, it wasn’t fair. That’s when we decided to shake up the market with the proposition of sharing 50 per cent of our profits with customers.”

Jonny launched the company in September with founding director Colm McClean and CEO Damian Wilson.

“Our objective was not only to be a company that shares profits but run the business as a profit-hungry company to ensure our customers benefit directly from our growth,” Jonny said.

“We are proud to be Northern Ireland-born and raised and to offer customer service with local staff. And even elderly people who have been with the same provider for years have realised how easy it is to switch to Share Energy, it takes literally two minutes on our website.

“That is one of the reasons Share has been performing above expectations so far, with an incredible number of customers signing up. It is still early days, but we are already hiring additional staff to our Customer Care team.”

Jonny started his career in IT, however the entrepreneurship streak in his blood didn’t take very long to take over. Jonny’s dad, the late Ken Barr, had a men’s clothing store on the main street in Larne that had been run by the family since the 1950s.

“I used to help my dad at the shop and learned a lot from him, and definitely put these lessons to use when I decided to set up my first business,” Jonny said.

Jonny worked in IT for 10 years and always had an interest in renewable energy, but the turning point was getting a very high electricity bill. Looking for ways to pay less for energy, he started investigating wind power. In 2007, he founded Wind NI to develop wind turbine projects all over the Province.

However, the quality of the turbines and maintenance wasn’t up to Jonny’s standards, so he also founded Everun, a company that today operates and maintains turbines throughout Ireland and Scotland.

As a true adept of the saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself”, Jonny put his IT talent to work to found yet another company, Izon, which develops innovative energy management software designed to manage renewable energy and manufacturing assets, helping companies reduce their energy costs.

Jonny has also been investing in start-ups in NI, ROI, GB and even in Canada and the US. “When I was looking for investors for my businesses, I faced a lot of rejection and learned many lessons the hard way, so I made a pact with myself: I’d help other start-ups so they wouldn’t have to go through that too,” he said.

In his spare time, Jonny likes to go for lunch with a view of the water at the Prom Café in Larne, and walk with his four kids, wife and dog at Carnfunnock Country Park.