While energy and the cost of living dominate UK headlines alongside a host of almost daily proposals to provide short term relief, the good news is that most people recognise that the path to Net Zero and to medium to long term prosperity involves deployment of green technologies and energy.  2 tenders of significance are a focus of Burges Salmon and our developer and investor clients at the moment.

Tomorrow will see applicants submit projects to BEIS for support under the Green Hydrogen Business Model.  Getting ready for these tenders has been a major task in what has been a relatively short timescale.  A timescale which indicates that the Government has accepted the industry stance that we have to get on with deploying the first green hydrogen projects quickly to capture the economic as well as the decarbonisation benefits that green hydrogen can provide.  Submission of bids will not mean "pens down" for many of these projects as all will need to be moving to document and firm up the supply chain contracts, demand side contracts and renewable electricity supply contracts they will need to ensure that if the projects are awarded a contract under the Business Model, they can be up and running by the end of 2025.

Yesterday we had confirmation from The Crown Estate that the Celtic Sea floating wind tender will be run in 2023 alongside details of how the tender will operate.   Bidders and consortia are already lining up to prepare for this and it provides a fantastic opportunity for Wales, Cornwall and the South-West to capture some of the supply chain benefits of this new form of offshore wind development.  Indeed, as the headline indicates floating wind supply chains will actually form part of the assessment criteria for award.  The Celtic Sea Supply Chain Cluster, of which Burges Salmon's Bristol office has been part has been pushing for this.  As I write this post I am due to board a plane to Aberdeen tonight to the Floating Wind conference in Aberdeen where this will no doubt be a well discussed topic.