Osborne Clarke advises Foresight on new green hydrogen joint venture

Published by

Peter Davison

Chris Yeo

Lawyers at Osborne Clarke in Bristol have advised Foresight on its involvement in a new green hydrogen joint venture - Grenian Hydrogen - to develop electrolytic hydrogen projects in the UK alongside Statkraft and Progressive Energy.

Launching with an initial development portfolio of 200MWe across seven projects in the North West and North Wales, 100MWe of which are currently in the engineering and consenting phase, Grenian will provide electrolyser technology for the initial projects.

The partnership will offer a bankable solution to major manufacturers seeking to switch away from natural gas to decarbonise operations using hydrogen. Grenian’s flagship 30MWe Cheshire Green Hydrogen (CGH) project at Peel’s Protos site, near Ince, has already been shortlisted by the UK Government for a 15-year Low Carbon Hydrogen Agreement (LCHA).

Chris Yeo, Bristol-based partner in Osborne Clarke’s corporate team, advised Foresight on the transaction.

Chris said: “We're delighted to have supported Foresight on this transaction, and we hope to see Grenian play a key part in facilitating the UK’s transition to a low-carbon future.”

Chris Holmes, partner at Foresight, said: “The UK’s Hydrogen Strategy and the recent Powering Up Britain announcements, through their combination of policy initiatives, have now accelerated the critical role that green hydrogen will play in the next phase of the UK’s energy transition.

"This presents an opportunity for Grenian Hydrogen to deliver a much-needed low-carbon solution for UK businesses and households."

A new plan for making South Wales and Western England a global leader in Net Zero energy was unveiled last week, with the major project set to create up to 40,000 jobs and safeguard a further 60,000.

The Western Gateway Hydrogen Delivery Pathway suggests that investing in hydrogen infrastructure within the area could see between 16,000 and 21,000 kilo tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved by 2050.

The plan was announced at Hydrogen Gateway, a national Net Zero conference held at International Convention Centre Wales in Newport.

It is led by the Western Gateway Partnership in collaboration with Hydrogen South West, the South Wales Industrial Cluster and the GW4 Alliance, which includes the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.