Industry sources said the company was determined to ensure it was not left behind by newer entrants such as SWS in the race to provide enough renewable energy to meet the government's target of generating 33% of the state's electricity from renewables by 2020.

The move comes as the company completed the purchase of the 300megawatt Butendiek off-shore wind farm development 34 kilometres off the coast of Germany, bought from local owners for an undisclosed amount.

The company reached an agreement with Butendiek's original developers last December to take over the wind farm but shareholder approval for the deal was granted only a few weeks ago.

The project started as a community development with 8,600 local shareholders. Under the deal, the local investors will retain the option to buy back a 50% stake in the wind farm when it is complete.

According to Airtricity's chief executive Eddie O'Connor, the company will start development at the site in the near future.

The wind farm is expected to be operational by the end of 2009.

O'Connor indicated that the company was planning to acquire or develop other offshore interests, saying the future of wind power in Europe lay in offshore projects.

"They are 1.4 times more expensive than land-based wind projects but, for instance, Denmark is finished in terms of land capacity and Germany is nearly finished in terms of land projects too so where else can you go?"

O'Connor said the Butendiek project would be a precursor to the Supergrid, Airtricity's proposed pan-European subsea energy grid project.

"It will demonstrate our leadership abilities in wind energy by showing that we can develop significant off-shore projects, " he said.

He refused to be drawn on the prospect of future Airtricity expansion in Ireland but said that "it would be very very silly to think that Airtricity would have no intention of looking at the Irish market. It's still our largest market where we have the most people employed and it's where our head office is based".