Enterprise minister Simon Coveney has visited Irish offshore company Green Rebel’s Limerick base as the company announces its first big expansion outside of Cork.

Green Rebel provides a full range of survey and data services to the offshore renewable energy (ORE) industry and is actively recruiting for 25 highly skilled positions. Based on projections, it is expected that the company will need an additional 50 people over the next two years to meet demand for its services. This will bring the total number of new jobs to 75.

Jobs include geophysicists, data scientists, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers

The jobs include oceanographers, geophysicists, data scientists, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, survey vessel crew, technicians and project leads. The positions are based in Limerick, Cork and on board Green Rebel’s survey vessels.

The company was established by Irish entrepreneur Pearse Flynn in 2020 and specialises in acquiring, processing and analysing marine, aerial and met-ocean data using survey boats and aircraft as well as LiDAR buoys and innovative technologies that are designed and assembled in Limerick.

Green Rebel has live and upcoming projects in Ireland, Scotland and off the coast of mainland Europe. There are also a number of potential projects in international markets such as the United States and Australia.

Green Rebel’s MetOcean division is located in Limerick. The company’s floating LiDAR Buoy is designed and assembled on site, with the platform proven to deliver the investment grade data required to fund offshore wind development.

The buoy has been designed to offer more power, more buoyancy and more reliable data. The buoys are as tall as a two-storey house and weigh as much as 11 family cars, they operate autonomously at sea and use lidar technology to profile the speed of winds at heights of up to 300m. The buoys also deliver data on waves, ocean currents and water quality which is analysed and interpreted by the team of data specialists in Limerick.

Ciaran Sheehan, Green Rebel head of people and culture said: “Green Rebel is very much focused on employee experience and in attracting, retaining and rewarding the best talent. Our focus is investing in and introducing initiatives to support our people.

‘Energised and Effective Teams’ programme

"Our innovative ‘Energised and Effective Teams’ programme is backed by science and is designed to enable managers to maximise the energy within their teams. It looks at areas like rest and diet to maximise each person’s performance whether they’re working from home, in the office, offshore on a buoy, or working for several weeks at a time on board our survey vessels.”

Green Rebel operates a fleet of vessels and aircraft to map vast areas of the ocean. It has a team of scientists, chemists, engineers, ecologists, vessel crew and support staff across multiple locations in Cork and Limerick.

Green Rebel provides the offshore wind and other sectors an end-to-end set of data services that extend from acquisition, processing, interpretations and reporting, with their fleet of purpose-built vessels, aircraft, floating LiDAR buoys and in-house team of scientists and industry experts. 

Energy security, decarbonisation and economic growth

Minister Coveney said: “The triple benefits of offshore wind are energy security, decarbonisation and economic growth. We need to utilise all of the talents that Ireland has to offer to make the most of this opportunity.

"Green Rebel has deployed high level engineering and instrumentation to design and manufacture essential technologies for the offshore wind sector.

"Already we’re seeing the opportunities internationally with Green Rebel’s technologies being used by a number of tier-one ORE developers in this field. In the decades to come we will see tens of thousands of Irish jobs in the offshore wind sector. Green Rebel is beating down a path for other Irish supply chain companies to follow and is building confidence in this sector.”

Kieran Ivers, CEO of Green Rebel said: “This jobs announcement is a reflection of the progress we’ve made in developing world-class services that will inform offshore wind farm developments in Ireland and abroad.

"Green Rebel is competing on a global scale. We've built fast to enter new markets in the UK and mainland Europe with our sights firmly focused on offering our services across other global markets. Our experience is that the talent is here and we want to ensure the economic value is created and stays in Ireland.”