Womble Bond Dickinson supports RES on UK green hydrogen strategy

By Stephen Emerson

23 June 2023

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A Southampton-based team at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson has advised RES on its new green hydrogen joint venture, HYRO, with Octopus Energy Generation.

HYRO is seeking to invest £3bn in green hydrogen projects by 2030 to help industrial businesses embrace green hydrogen, protecting industry from gas price volatility and reducing emissions.

As part of the next phase in its development, HYRO is now working with Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of household brands like Andrex®, Kleenex® and Huggies®, to swap gas for green hydrogen at UK factories by developing electrolysers at two manufacturing plants in Kent and Wales.

Both electrolyser facilities will have a combined capacity of 22.5 MW and are expected to reduce thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions every year for Kimberly-Clark. It will also help meet the UK Government's 2030 green hydrogen targets.

The Womble Bond Dickinson team advising RES was led by energy partners Sebastian Briggs and Richard Cockburn and finance partner Graham Jeffries. Both Sebastian and Graham are based in Southampton.

The firm has worked on a number of strategic projects with RES over the years including the sale of a 12-turbine windfarm in Scotland last November, the sale of its Roaring Hill Energy Storage Project to TagEnergy as well as the sale of Craiggore Wind Farm in 2019, RES' first UK subsidy-free wind farm project.

Sebastian Briggs said:: "It has been a pleasure working once again with RES, this time on the HYRO joint venture. Hydrogen is going to play a crucial role in the UK meeting its net zero targets and it is fantastic to see companies like RES and Octopus Energy Generation coming together to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy."

By Stephen Emerson

Stephen Emerson is the Managing Editor of The Business Magazine and is responsible for the publication's print publications and online properties including the newly launched Biz News websites in Hampshire and Dorset.

Stephen has been a journalist for 20 years and has worked at local, regional and national publications and led a team which made The Scotsman website one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK with over eight million monthly users.

He has a keen interest in technology, property and corporate finance and telling the stories of the people behind the successful firms in these sectors.