INSPIRE Environmental Joins Venterra in First United States Acquisition

Venterra Group Plc, the offshore wind energy services business, today announces its entry into the United States with the acquisition of INSPIRE Environmental, a leading marine environmental consultancy with expertise in the acquisition and interpretation of data that determines the health of the seabed and the resources that rely on ocean habitats.

Founded in 2015 by Drew Carey and Joe Germano, INSPIRE services clients in the offshore wind, ports and marine construction sectors. Located in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, INSPIRE’s integrated team of marine environmental scientists collects, interprets and visualises seafloor data. INSPIRE is known for implementing innovative and cost-effective approaches that combine state-of-the-art field equipment, focused sampling designs, and innovative data visualisation techniques. This approach has been applied during the development phase of eleven offshore wind projects along the east coast of the US to de-risk project permitting and accelerate development timelines.

INSPIRE has completed over 275 projects worldwide for blue chip clients such as Orsted, Shell, Equinor, Siemens Gamesa, Mayflower Wind, Ocean Winds, BP, ExxonMobil, NYSERDA, NOAA, USACE, and USEPA.

Venterra was formed to create a global services champion supporting the offshore wind industry’s rapid expansion and leading role in the energy transition. It is building a service offering across the wind farm lifecycle, comprising services through the Engineer, Build and Support phases of an offshore wind farm lifecycle. This is being achieved through a combination of acquisition and investment, assembling urgently needed capabilities to help the offshore wind industry meet its potential.

Rob Jewkes, Chief Executive Officer of Venterra Group, said; ‘INSPIRE is our first North American acquisition and adds new capability to both clients worldwide and existing US clients of our UK and European based member companies. Drew and his team are an impressive and experienced group of scientists who add significant value to the critical early stages of wind farm site appraisal. Protecting the marine environment is crucial, and the building of renewable energy needs to be done with full consideration to the environmental effects. INSPIRE further enhances our fast-growing early stage ‘Engineer’ phase as we build a comprehensive set of services for developers in the US and worldwide.’

Paul Doherty, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Venterra Group, said; ‘We are delighted to add INSPIRE to our front-end Engineer offering as we build a comprehensive set of services. They complement our powerful grouping of GDG, Ordtek and Partrac who together offer a highly relevant set of services to support early stage development of offshore wind in the global market.’

Drew Carey, CEO of INSPIRE, said: ‘Combining our environmental focus with Venterra’s offering means we will be able to offer a more comprehensive set of services with greater international reach as the global market accelerates. Venterra member companies already operate in the US and we will now open Venterra’s US headquarters on the East Coast to be close to the offshore wind industry as it grows across the US northeast and beyond. As a team, we are excited to join Venterra, focused on making a real contribution to the health of marine ecosystems while reaching net zero carbon targets.’