Our renewable energy services

Planning and environment

The ever-changing planning regime, combined with an evolving environmental landscape, can provide challenges both now and in the future in terms of overcoming hurdles to development, viability and environmental protection. It’s important you have the right legal team on your side to help you navigate these complex areas of law effectively and expediently.

We provide our clients with advice on a wide range of activities and issues including:

  • Site selection
  • Planning application reviews
  • Environmental impact assessments
  • Minimising the risk of and defending Judicial Reviews
  • Assisting with the conduct of planning appeals
  • Representation on enforcement matters – both planning and environmental
  • Site acquisition and dealing with in particular contaminated land
  • Biodiversity net gain and nitrate neutrality
  • Wildlife, habitat and species protection
  • Waste management, water pollution and environmental damage.

Irwin Mitchell’s was recently named in Planning Magazine’s rankings as the fifth highest rated planning law firm in 2024.

Construction and engineering

We advise on both contentious and non-contentious matters so we can support our clients throughout the life of any energy project, and our team includes an engineer turned lawyer, so we are in a unique position of being able to understand complex technical projects from a practical as well as legal perspective.

We cover the full range of specialist services, including:

  • Procurement advice
  • Tendering
  • Drafting and negotiating bespoke building and engineering contracts
  • Professional appointments
  • Collateral warranties
  • Bonds and guarantees
  • Development agreements
  • Development finance and security documents
  • Standard form contracts including JCT, NEC3, NEC4, FIDIC, ICC, MF/1 and IChemE
  • Dispute resolution.

Real estate transactions and developments

We offer an end-to-end service from site identification, through the stages of acquisition, funding, development and disposal. We add real value to your renewable energy project by identifying and solving title issues, constraints relating to existing land stewardship, planning consent and bio-diversity net gain. We’ll use our wealth of experience to help you navigate the issues that can hamper deals so that you can complete your project with as little fuss and delay as possible.

In particular, we advise on:

  • Exclusivity agreements
  • Heads of terms
  • Options and leases in a funder-friendly format
  • Project planning and structuring which meets your requirements and are funder-friendly
  • Site acquisition through the appropriate leasing structure
  • Acquisition of all necessary rights for project and infrastructure
  • Infrastructure agreements
  • Third party rights agreements – access, offtake, shadow flicker and wake loss etc
  • Development consortia
  • Public/private partnerships
  • Funding arrangements including Funder Direct Agreements.

Real estate disputes

Our specialist team of property litigation solicitors provide practical, commercial advice on all types of real estate disputes, pursuing and defending claims in complex disputes.

Our team provides tactical advice on the best forum to resolve the dispute quickly and proportionally whether that be through litigation, arbitration, expert determination or alternative dispute resolution, and have litigation experience at levels from the County Court to the Court of Appeal.

Commercial and intellectual property (IP)

Our commercial and IP solicitors will give your business the expertise and advice it needs day-to-day. We can help you protect the value generated by your business dealings, while managing the legal risks to your business. Our team has advised on the protection of IP rights and commercialisation opportunities for products and processes that connect power generation or load projects to the electricity distribution network, transforming the way new connections to the high voltage electricity distribution network are delivered.

We can also support you with:

  • Contracts for installation and operation of renewable energy solutions
  • Data protection
  • E-commerce and Data
  • Franchising
  • Information technology
  • Joint ventures
  • Sales and distribution arrangements
  • Sourcing.

Finance and financial regulation

Our Banking and Financial Services team advise on a broad range of debt financing arrangements, renewable energy trading agreements and hedging arrangements. They also advise renewable energy companies on their obligations under applicable financial regulations, such as the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive/ Regulation (MiFID II).

Members of the team have inhouse secondment experience sitting on trading and compliance desks such as Drax Power, and so have a genuine feel for practical and operational challenges that clients face.

Your Irwin Mitchell team

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