Business Person of the Month: Mary Quaney, Mainstream Renewable Power

Mary Quaney has been chosen as The Irish Times Business Person of the Month for August, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.

Quaney is chief executive of Mainstream Renewable Power, a company founded in Ireland 14 years ago that has since become a significant player in the global renewables sector.

The business, in which Norway’s Aker acquired a majority stake last year, announced in August that it was re-entering the Irish market, with plans to develop three wind farms off the east, southeast and west coasts.

Mainstream, which operates in both onshore and offshore wind sectors well as in solar energy, had sold its last remaining Irish interests back in 2019.

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It is the latest move by a company that has almost doubled its workforce since the start of last year and now operates in 20 countries worldwide.

Announcing the move, Quaney said that, despite its change of ownership and broadening global range of projects, Ireland is “very much the engine room of our business”.

Also in August, Mainstream was named as preferred bidder for a large wind farm project off the Scottish coast as part of a joint venture.

That project has the potential to deliver 1.8 gigawatts of energy once up and running, enough to power more than two million homes.

Under Quaney, Mainstream is also being merged with sister group Aker Offshore Wind, increasing its industrial heft. Aker has said from the outset that its longer-term plan is to float Mainstream publicly over the next few years.