The specialist €1.5m airplane will be used for coastal surveys, opening up roles in marine engineering, data analysis and more.
Green Rebel Group is set to survey Irish coastal waters as part of the planning process for offshore windfarms and other renewable energy projects and to help establish Cork as a green energy hub.
The surveys will be the first digital aerial ecology assessments of Ireland’s coasts by a domestic company. They will be carried out by Green Rebel in partnership with Cork Airport, the Atlantic Flight Training Academy (AFTA) and Weston Aviation, and are expected to create 15 new jobs.
Green Rebel has acquired a specialist aircraft worth €1.5m, the twin-engine Diamond Air DA42, to carry out the assessments of thousands of square miles of ocean.
The company announced plans to purchase the aircraft and expand its team accordingly late last year. Now the plane has arrived and surveys are set to begin.
The DA42 will reside permanently at the Weston Aviation hangar at Cork Airport where AFTA will act as its specialist operator.
A new marine data centre at the Cork Airport Business Park will store, process and back up the collected data.
“This aircraft will help us to compile information that will ensure offshore windfarms are built in the best locations to protect the ecology of the ocean,” said Sarah Kandrot, head of aerial surveys at Green Rebel Group.
“With this aircraft, large sections of the ocean can be surveyed over a shorter period of time than can be achieved with traditional boat-based surveys.
“Thanks to the ultra-high spec of our camera equipment, our aircraft will be flying at heights that will not cause any disturbance to birds or marine megafauna, while at the same time allowing us to collect the highest-quality digital imagery.”
Green Rebel was launched last year to help service and maintain a growing number of offshore windfarms in Irish waters, and said it would create 80 jobs. It acquired a majority stake in Limerick-based marine data company IDS Monitoring earlier this year, which it said would lead to further expansion.
While the latest new roles at the company will be varied, they will be associated with the new aircraft and aerial survey work and will mainly focus on marine engineering and data analysis. Green Rebel said it has plans for further job creation over the coming years.
AFTA CEO Mark Casey added that the jobs will be “high quality” and Green Rebel CEO Mick Horgan said new hires will be joining the company’s “amazing team of data acquisition specialists and data scientists”.
Learn more about jobs at Green Rebel here.