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Shakespeare Martineau’s Energy Team ramps up Capacity and completes largest deal in Northern Hemisphere

Shakespeare Martineau’s Energy Team ramps up Capacity and completes largest deal in Northern Hemisphere

Shakespeare Martineau LLP has recently expanded its team of specialist energy solicitors by welcoming into its Nottingham office Rachel Kent and Isaac Murdy. 

The expansion is as a result of a hive of activity in the sector and the Nottingham team is currently helping its clients to develop circa £2billion GDV of new energy projects.

Part of this growth is down to the appetite in the market for alternative technologies, and the East Midlands is leading the way as Shakespeare Martineau Energy Partner, Peter Dilks, says:

“The introduction of battery storage has long been seen as the solution to solving some of the UK's energy supply challenges, and we have just advised on what is believed to be the largest operational battery storage plant in the northern hemisphere, second globally only to the 120MW ‘Mega Battery’ installed in Australia. This plant, installed on a piece of land smaller than a football pitch, has sufficient capacity to power the entire City of Derby”

Renewables are also likely to continue to play a key part in the UK’s energy mix and last year we saw the first 24 hour period since the 1880’s where Great Britain went without coal-fired power stations and relied solely on low carbon sources.

The sector isn’t without challenges, though, as Peter explains the impact of the recent T-4 Capacity Market results on new build projects:

“The market is still digesting the results of the February Capacity Market auction where new build projects received less than 2% of all contracts awarded. There is clear need for reform if we are to address the longer term diversification of energy supply and take us beyond the ageing coal and nuclear plants which currently provide around a quarter of the UK's energy supply.

There are however reasons to remain optimistic, particularly in the East Midlands. We are engaged in some of the UK's largest "subsidy free" solar projects which will soon be entering the construction phase to enable clean, cost-effective energy at no additional cost to the tax payer.”

For more information visit www.shma.co.uk or contact Peter Dilks on 0115 945 4614 or peter.dilks@shma.co.uk.

 


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