Wind energy: Cork entrepreneur is one of Ireland's biggest investors in renewables

Temporis Group is run by David Watson who has a philosophy doctorate from Cambridge and a chemistry degree from UCC

Entrepreneur and Ohme CEO David Watson, second from left, with John Manning of Ford Ireland and Ohme director Patrick McDonald announcing an EV charging partnership between Ohme and Ford earlier this year. File picture

One of the biggest investors in wind energy in Ireland is an investment fund and assets management company, run by a Cork-born cider-maker with a philosophy doctorate from Cambridge University and chemistry degree from University College Cork.

David Watson’s Temporis Group has three main arms:

• Beverage-ordering platform eBev and car charging tech firm Ohme;
• Home-building firm Longview;
• Investment management.

The investment management operations are carried out via Temporis Investment Management Limited in Ireland and Temporis Capital Limited in London. Together, trading as Temporis Capital, the firms managed over €539m in assets as of September 2020.

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Mr Watson, one of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs, is Temporis Group’s co-chief investment officer and Ohme’s chief executive.

He is also the proud co-owner of a 1,000-tree orchard planted by his late father Tim around the family’s sprawling Killahora House estate near Cork’s Fota Wildlife Park.

The Killahora Orchards cidery has won numerous awards in recent years and produces wild-fermented ciders, poiré, and rare apple ice wine.

This article is part of the Wind Power Special Report published in the 'Irish Examiner' today in print and online here. 

Temporis Group’s Impact investment fund management arm manages four funds which it describes as “unregulated collective investment schemes”.

The funds include the Temporis Operational Renewable Energy Strategy Fund.

Set up in 2017, it is described by the company as “an income strategy with a focus on inflation-linked returns backed by generating assets”. It states that it has “acquired small-scale operational projects and added value by aggregating them into a diversified portfolio”.

Its investments are focused on wind and water power generation in Ireland and Britain.

Another fund is solely based on operations in Ireland. 

It was set up in 2018 as a “growth-focused fund aiming to leverage high-return opportunities offered by development”.

The group’s finances are difficult to assess, not least because it does not publicly disclose detailed financial information. Staff at one of its main Irish subsidiaries told the Irish Examiner that such information is not made available.

“Trying to untangle the various company accounts is also not for the faint-hearted, and attempts lead to links to a plethora of different companies in Ireland, the UK, and links to — among other places — Malta and the Cayman Islands,” they said.

One of the few pieces of publicly available financial information is in Temporis Capital Limited’s latest quantitative remuneration disclosures.

These show that for the financial year December 1, 2024, to November 30, 2025, remuneration awarded to all the company’s 45 or so staff amounted to €7.3m.

Temporis Aurora, Temporis Capital’s Cork-based renewable energy development platform, owns a string of about 30 energy companies and wind farms under the mantle of companies, including Greensource Sustainable Development Ltd. These include Tullcondra Green Energy Ltd and Inis Onshore Wind Limited, previously Aurora Wind Ireland.