Eddie O'Connor, the Airtricity founder who netted €50 million from the group's sale, is lining up for another tilt at the alternative energy market.
Mr O'Connor revealed yesterday that he is launching a new venture, Mainstream Renewable Power, which is going to focus on developing big projects in Europe and elsewhere.
The move could see him competing with his old company, Airtricity, now owned by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) in Europe and by German giant Eon in the US.
However, he told The Irish Times yesterday that SSE did not ask him to sign any sort of agreement that would prevent him competing with it when the Scottish company bought Airtricity for €1.87 billion last month.
But he stressed that he is not allowed to recruit staff directly from his old company.
Mr O'Connor said that Mainstream Renewable Power had enough seed capital to enable it to recruit the "talented people we're going to need" but would not say how much cash it has available at the moment.
"Renewable energy is now becoming part of the mainstream," he said.
"The big renewable product in northern Europe is wind, but if you look at Spain and Portugal and the Mediterranean basin, solar is starting to develop there.
"We'll be looking at doing wind projects in northern Europe and at solar power and photovoltaic [solar cell] technology."
Mr O'Connor earned about €50 million from the sale of Airtricity's businesses to Eon and SSE, for a total of €2.9 billion. He stepped down as chief executive of the group on February 2nd.
He has not wasted any time on getting started on his new project. The new company, Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd, was incorporated and registered with the Republic's Companies Registration Office on February 8th.
Mr O'Connor yesterday gave a talk on China's rapidly growing appetite for energy at the Institute of European Affairs.
Afterwards, he told The Irish Times that while Airtricity has had a presence in China for three years and has been testing sites for their suitability for wind-power production, the government there was not willing to pay enough for it.
As a result the company did not begin building any wind farms. "I don't know what the position is now, as it may have changed since the Chinese have said that they are going to sign up to Kyoto," he said.
Mr O'Connor said that China's growing demand for energy could contribute to pushing up up oil and gas prices to the equivalent of $200 a barrel in as little as three years.
He pointed out that the market is growing to the point where it has to add enough electricity to power Germany every year.
China has made supply deals with major gas producers such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to take their gas production to fuel its electricity plants.
It is also going to be a major customer of Russia's Sakhalin Island field, which Exxon Mobil is developing. The Chinese are also buying oil and gas from producers in Africa.
