Venterra Group has acquired marine environmental consultancy INSPIRE Environmental, marking the former’s entry into the US offshore services market.
INSPIRE was founded in 2015 by Drew Carey and Joe Germano and works to support clients in the offshore wind, ports and marine construction sectors by assessing the health of the seabed and the resources that rely on ocean habitats.
It is located in Newport, Rhode Island and has an integrated team of marine environmental scientists who collect, interpret and visualise 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, Venterra said.
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, it added.
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 Group chief executive Rob Jewkes 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.”
Venterra Group executive vice president of engineering Paul Doherty 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.”
INSPIRE chief executive Drew Carey 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.”