Welcome to Beyond the Urban
Independent energy and utility engineering. Malta and the EU.
I’m a warranted mechanical engineer (No. 2089) and REWS-registered energy auditor with fifteen years across offshore wind, oil and gas, and subsea construction. Through GTA Consultancy, I audit power and water systems for businesses across Malta and the EU and manage the upgrades from spec to commissioning, pulling in the right specialists where a job crosses trades.
Most people do not buy the wrong thing. They buy the right thing for the wrong job, and pay for it for years. Not because they lack sense, but because nobody walks them through it. The suppliers all have something to sell, and no one is in your corner.
That is why Beyond The Urban exists. A chiller in a hotel, a battery in a campervan: the question is the same. What does the job actually require? I size that first, then tell you what meets it. When something isn’t worth buying, I say so.
Thomas Gauci
Mechanical Engineer & Energy Auditor
Cut the bill. Claim the grant. Stay compliant.
Different settings. Different solutions. Same question.
Who Is Behind the Articles and Product Reviews
-
Mechanical Engineer
-
Energy Auditor
-
Project Manager
The spark for Beyond The Urban came from a short stay in remote Chocó, Colombia. Jurassic-like jungle, the kind you reach by propeller plane. No grid in sight, no interconnector, no gas tanker, no pipeline. And still: power all day, water on tap, and a stable internet connection.
While living remotely for a few weeks, two things clicked. Energy systems, solar, batteries, the lot, have come further in effectiveness and cost than most people realise. And a grid connection is a dependency. There is real value in energy independence, and it is available now.
I’m Thomas Gauci, from Malta, and I’d spent the fifteen years before that trip building energy at the other end of the scale: offshore wind, oil and gas, subsea construction, around the world. Different energy demands, different sources, different conditions to build in, and underneath all of it, one repeating question: which equipment is actually right for the job in front of you? Answer it properly and things run for decades. Skip it and you pay for decades instead. Chocó answered that question at the scale of a household, and it mattered more than anything I’d commissioned.
Most people never realise what energy independence, or even a bit more of it, would do for them. The ones who do get stuck in a maze: advice written by marketers, audits that are sales visits in disguise, spec sheets built to confuse.
Beyond The Urban is the bridge. I look at every job the way an engineer does: what fails, what lasts, and what it really costs over time.
- What does my building waste?
- What does my trip need?
- What’s this quote not telling me?
What I Publish
Most reviews ask whether a product is any good. That is the wrong question. The right one is whether it is right for what you are actually doing.
A battery that is perfect for keeping the fridge and the router alive through a power cut is the wrong buy for four days off-grid with a compressor fridge running. Same product, different job, different answer. Working out which is which is a sizing exercise: loads, duty cycle, recharge time, and how much headroom you actually need.
So that is how we write. Not simply “the ten best power stations”, but what you need for the trip, the outage, the van, the workshop, the balcony.
And when nothing on the market fits the job, we say that too.
How We Review Products
Our process is built on transparency, real world data, and hands on knowledge. We collaborate with architects, engineers, and sustainability experts to verify information before publishing. Every guide and recommendation is designed to be practical, unbiased, and applicable with no greenwashing and no marketing fluff.
Are Commissions earned?
I would rather you knew this up front, because it is the reason you can trust the rest.
The guides are free, and funded by affiliate links. If you buy a product through a link on this site, we may earn a small commission from the retailer at no extra cost to you.
Energy Consultancy is paid for by the client. When we recommend a chiller, a control system or a solar array to a business, we take no commission from whoever supplies it. Not a percentage, not a referral fee, nothing. If the cheapest fix is a setting change that costs you nothing and earns us nothing, that is what the report will say.
Two different jobs, two different funding models, and we keep them apart. The advice we are paid for is never influenced by the products we review.
What I Do Now
The guides come out of the day job. energy and utility engineering practice for businesses where power and water are a serious cost. Hotels and resorts, factories and manufacturers, food and drink producers, cold storage, data centres, healthcare. On-site across Malta, and remote across the EU for energy modelling and technical advisory.
Three services. Most clients start with an audit.
Energy and Water (utility) Audits
The core of what we do. We look at how your building actually uses power and water: where it goes, where it is wasted, and what it costs to fix. Cooling, refrigeration, process heat, lighting, controls, and the rate you are on. You get a report with every option costed and ranked by payback, so you know what to do first.
Our energy audits meet ISO 50002, which means they qualify for EPAS, Malta’s new grant scheme. That puts up to €6,000 toward the assessment, or covers it entirely for smaller users. We handle the application.
Energy Management and system upgrades consultancy
The full service. We do not just tell you what to do, we walk you through doing it. We start with the audit, write the technical specifications, go to suppliers on your behalf, get like-for-like quotes, handle the grants, compliance and permits, and hand you a signed engineering recommendation.
Then we measure the savings, so you can see they landed, and keep them from slipping back.
You still choose. We never make the decision for you. But by the time we are done, the decision is obvious.
Think of it as having a project manager for your energy systems who happens to be an engineer.
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)
An assessment of your building’s energy efficiency, rated A to G. A legal requirement when selling, renting or renewing a lease. We assess the building, you get your certificate. It tells you where you stand, but it does not tell you what to do next.
In the Field – El Darién
The jungle is beautiful, but it is not friendly. So when Salvamontes, alongside Valentina, asked Beyond The Urban to help build an off-grid ranger’s cabin deep in the El Darién rainforest, we treated it like any other engineering job.
First, understand the environment: extreme humidity, heavy downpours, venomous snakes and jaguars, and a site you can only reach on foot. Second, design something simple, durable and maintainable enough to survive it. Third, choose an energy harvesting system that makes the whole thing energy independent, a permanent, safe base for protection and research in one of the most biodiverse rainforest regions on Earth.
Salvamontes do the real work on the ground, protecting critical habitat and documenting species. Valentina’s work makes that mission visible. Our job was to make sure the engineering holds.
Follow the full build on the project page: El Darién – Hecho.
The Mission
Energy is treated as a fixed cost. It is not. It is a managed one, and the difference between the two is usually ten to fifteen per cent of the bill, every year, for as long as the building stands.
Our job is to turn one into the other. Size it, cost it, fund it, build it, verify it, and then hold it there, because savings decay the moment nobody is watching them.
And for everyone who is not hiring an engineer, we write down what we learn, so the same knowledge is free.
Our Three Values
Integrity
We earn trust by delivering reliable, proven solutions that protect your investments and maximise their value.
Environmental Stewardship
We respect the land with careful design, local labour and services, efficient energy use, and low-impact methods.
Transparency
We share clear, honest information so you can move off grid with confidence
Who We Work With
The consultancy works with businesses where power and water are a real line on the balance sheet: hotels and resorts, factories and manufacturers, food and drink producers, cold storage and refrigerated logistics, data centres, and healthcare. Malta for on-site work, the EU for remote energy modelling and technical advisory.
The readers are everyone else. Homeowners weighing up solar, self-builders planning a garden room, van converters sizing a battery, and anyone holding a quote they are not sure they can trust. The guides are for you, and they are free.
Running a business with a serious utility bill?
Book a free 20-minute call. If there is nothing worth saving, we will tell you that too.
Just after a straight answer?
The guides are free, independent, and written by an engineer.