Saturday interview: Farmer's son Martin McAdam is one of life�s enthusiasts, but he recalls with a shudder the precise moment when he realised he did not want to follow in his dad�s footsteps.
Farmer's son Martin McAdam is one of life's enthusiasts, but he recalls with a shudder the precise moment when he realised he did not want to follow in his dad's footsteps.
"One winter's morning when it was very, very cold we were mucking out one of the farm sheds, my brother stuck one of the farmyard forks through my Wellington boots and into my toe. At this point I had not realised he had stuck it into my toe because my feet were so cold, I realised it later and it was at that moment that I decided that this life was not for me and it was the motivation for me to go out and get an education."
Some four decades after the epiphany on the family farm at Drogheda, 30 miles from Dublin, McAdam does not seem to be suffering any lasting effects of his wound. He darts around his compact office at Edinburgh's Aquamarine Power with a satisfied air that may have something to do with the fact that farming's loss has been money-making's gain.
While all agree that the global economy is in for a tough time as a result of the meltdown of the money markets, McAdam is looking forward to making his third fortune.
With the graffiti-scarred old headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland visible in the background, the 47 year-old proudly shows off why.
The secret of his current satisfaction sits in a small perspex box by his desk. This contains a model of a machine that does not look too complex but, if McAdam is right, may play a significant part in the effort to develop clean energy sources that could help slow global warming.
Called the Oyster, the machine is being developed by Aquamarine to harness the power generated by the world's waves.
The machine consists of giant screens made from tubes that will sit on the seabed. It works by scooping water into a pipe through which it is forced onshore to drive turbines, which generate electricity.
When we meet McAdam is happy to find the sector enjoying a flurry of media interest, even if he may secretly be peeved that much of it has been generated by a rival device.
As the world's banking giants teeter on the edge, both environmental idealists and hard-nosed financiers see huge potential in the renewable energy field.
Speaking in a soft voice with an accent that is redolent of rural Ireland, McAdam dismisses claims that renewables could not be relied on to generate a steady supply of "base-load" energy.
By combining different energy sources like wind and wave power you can ensure a constant supply. "The tidal stream is completely uncorrelated with wind and it's completely predictable," he notes scathingly.
Every country with a coastline can produce marine energy.
McAdam insists he is not bothered that Edinburgh-based Pelamis has generated lots of attention after Portuguese authorities installed one of its snake-like wave power machines off the country.
He believes the simplicity of Aquamarine's systems will give them the edge.
Oyster has few moving parts and no electricals under water. McAdam says this makes it easy to install and maintain and gives it a good weight-to-power ratio.
The company says a wave farm of 10 Oysters powering one onshore hydroelectric plant could provide enough energy to power up to 3000 homes, equivalent to a small town.
The device has been designed so that big waves push the screens down out of storm surges.
"It's extremely simple in terms of engineering, but really clever."
The Neptune tidal stream generator, which features subsea turbines, has similar qualities.
"Simple is best and less is more," insists McAdam, whose square-jawed looks have something of Willie John McBride, the famed Irish rugby hardman, about them.
With utility giant Scottish & Southern Energy holding a controlling stake, Aquamarine will test Oyster next year. It hopes to start commercial production in 2012.
McAdam hopes the first Neptune will be in the water in 2011, with commercial operations starting in 2014.
"A huge amount of effort has gone into refining the plan," he says, declining to give away details of the commercial strategy.
None the less, he confirms that the company will need to raise £80m to £100m in several tranches over the next five years to bring the plans to fruition.
This could involve bringing in private equity, a strategic partner, or tapping existing investors. These include Sigma Capital, the Edinburgh investment business.
Asked whether he expects the endgame to involve him making a lot of money, McAdam smiles and says: "I hope so."
But then he has become used to making money in ways his parents probably never dreamed of when he was a boy.
McAdam was one of 10 children. Whatever the downsides, life on a farm gave him plenty of opportunity to indulge a love of making and fixing things that developed early.
At the age of 16 he went to study chemical engineering at University College Dublin, and showed his interest in environmental issues by joining the Friends of the Earth campaigning group.
He went on to work for ESB, the state-owned power firm, where he helped build some huge plants.
The first fortune came in 2000 following a move into IT consultancy. A firm that developed software to process post office transactions over the net, in which McAdam had a 20% stake, was sold for £4m to a US rival.
He spent two years in the States with the new owners until he got a call from the man who had been his first boss at ESB, Eddie O'Connor. McAdam recalls the date of his first meeting with O'Connor, such was the impression he made. It was August 4, 1982, when O'Connor walked into a room of hopefuls at ESB and said he wanted someone who was red hot at computers, using expletives to that effect.
"I said I am your man."
When O'Connor called in 2002 he wanted McAdam to help him develop a renewable energy business he had started called Airtricity.
The firm was formed to develop, own and operate wind farm assets, and no sooner had McAdam joined than he found himself leading Ireland's biggest ever such plant.
This required installing a 20km cable. As McAdam had to negotiate access deals with 27 landowners, he spent a lot of time drinking cups of tea in farmhouse kitchens.
"This was the most difficult project I had ever done in my life," he remembers.
In 2003 McAdam led the firm into the US, where it built a flourishing business with 50 plants across the country.
McAdam says the secret of success lay in striking good joint venture deals, using good advisers and operating genuine partnerships.
As wind power plants require firms to get access to land, obtain planning consent and arrange to transmit and sell the output, deal-making is everything.
"You had to get out there doing deals, speaking to people, making it happen.
"Others would say it's impossible; we would say how can we make it happen? That's one of the things I am bringing to Aquamarine."
The language provides a clue to the fact that McAdam is a graduate of the renowned Advanced Management Programme hothouse run by Harvard University.
He returned to the UK shortly before the US business was sold to EON for $1.4bn last October. In January Airtricity was sold to SSE for £1.1bn.
As a shareholder in Airtricity, McAdam made "several million euros" from that deal.
However, this was a period when, following the death of his wife from cancer, McAdam was forced to look at his priorities.
Eventually ready for a new challenge, he came to Aquamarine in August after a spell running the development activities in UK and Ireland for SSE Renewables.
There is plenty to keep him busy at Aquamarine.
While the Scottish Government has made encouraging noises about renewables, McAdam and others will have to lobby hard to get investment in the transmission grids required to make renewables viable.
"Where the waves are is not where the people live."
In Germany utilities can "socialise" the costs of installing grids.
A lover of hill-walking and the proud owner of a new kilt, in McGregor tartan, McAdam plans to be with Aquamarine in Scotland for years.
But he will keep the flat he owns in Dublin, not least for the sake of his 20-year-old daughter Kate, of whom he speaks with evident pride and who is following in his footsteps at UCD.
