Firm helps on £50bn of projects

Jan 27 2010 By The Journal

LAW firm Eversheds has successfully advised bidders on over £50bn of wind farm projects off the UK coast.

The firm was appointed to advise a number of consortia for the Round 3 Offshore Wind Farm Leasing Programme.

These included the Forewind Consortium, a joint venture formed by SSE Renewables Developments (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy plc, RWE Npower Renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy, and two of Norway’s largest companies, Statkraft and Statoil.

The consortium has been successful in its bid for the Dogger Bank Zone, the largest zone in the programme which is located 100km off the east coast of England.

This zone on its own represents about a third of the total Round 3 capacity, generating enough electricity to power 10 million homes

Eversheds has also advised RWE Npower Renewables on its bid for the Bristol Channel Zone and Eneco on its bid for the West Isle of Wight Zone.

Ian Gilthorpe, partner at the Newcastle office, said: "Eversheds are immensely proud to have played such an important role in advising bidders on Round 3.

"The size and strategic importance of Round 3 in the energy sector means that it is absolutely one of a kind and will set future standards around the world.

"We worked with our clients to create an innovative corporate structure to enable the various parties to collaborate and work together while financing their interests and having the flexibility to deal with the individual financing and structural issues needed to succeed in the future.

"The opportunity this project offers the North East region cannot be overstated.

"It will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects for wind energy in the world and has the potential to create many direct manufacturing and engineering jobs for the region as well as benefiting the wider supply chain."

The Round 3 Programme will see offshore wind farms built around the coast of Britain as part of the wider mandate by the UK Govern- ment to generate 15% of the UK’s power by 2020.