Lux Nova ranked as a leading Clean Energy law firm

We are delighted with the sustained recognition we are receiving in the Legal 500 and Chambers directories.

Team recognition

In the Legal 500, we continue to be ranked in Tier 3 (Power category).

And we have now also been ranked in Chambers, (Energy & Natural Resources category) thereby receiving formal recognition in both leading legal directories in the UK.

As a purpose-driven, boutique law firm of 11 Partners, we are especially proud of this, given the size of the firms we are competing against, and the breadth of these categories (which, unlike us, are not only focussed on Renewables, Clean Energy and Natural Capital, but also include broader Electricity and Nuclear work).

Individual recognition

Four of our Partners – Tom Bainbridge, Sandy Abrahams, Nikola Zahariev and Louisa Cilenti are again all listed as “Leading Partners” in the Legal 500.  That is more than any other law firm in the UK.   

Tom Bainbridge is also listed as a leading lawyer in Chambers (for the 19. year running).

Client quotes

Thank you to all our clients for putting their confidence in us.  We have had some great feedback, including:

‘Lux Nova has unparalleled experience in the biggest decarbonisation challenge of the 21st century: heat. They have worked on both sides of heat projects, giving them unique insight into both sides’ priorities, and further have worked to develop policy around heat too. Their deep expertise and experience makes them invaluable to work with.’

"`The Lux Nova team is incredibly experienced, responsive and commercial. The firm regularly goes beyond its remit to support client needs."

"All the Lux team members are incredibly responsive. They go above and beyond our expectations."

"The firm demonstrates an ability to handle complex and sophisticated legal matters in a rapidly evolving district heating market."

‘Sandy Abrahams is phenomenal to work with. She quickly grasps the business’ needs and is able to compare this to how the other side will react. It’s like having a cheat code on our side.’

"Tom Banbridge has commercial smarts, clarity of thought and a cool head."

‘We worked with Louisa Cilenti of Lux Nova Partners and had an extremely positive experience in an essentially unprecedented area. In Louisa we found someone who could be both a sound advisor and a creator of practical end product amidst great ambiguity.’

“We worked with Nikola from Lux Nova on a complex sleeved PPA transaction. We were attracted by their reputation and their green only approach which aligns with our ethos. They have a senior only approach which we prefer and are very commercial and pragmatic which worked well for the type of project, combining an immediate and holistic understanding not only of the PPA issues themselves, but also considering the interactions with the debt finance, equity investment and solar project development issues. We like their transparent approach to fees – which is very commercial and refreshing.”

Lux Nova advise PNE on its sale of the Sallachy wind farm development project

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We are proud to have advised long-standing client PNE Erneuerbare Energien on its disposal of the Sallachy wind farm development in Scotland. The buyer was the Canadian renewable energy developer and investor, Boralex.

The project, currently under development, plans the construction of nine wind turbines with a height of 149.9 meters at the blade tip. The permitted capacity of the park is 50 MW.  The project obtained planning permission in April 2022, and grid connection is scheduled for 2028. The expected operating period of this park is estimated at 30 years, and the local communities are set to benefit from up to £6.5m in community benefit funds over the lifetime of the project.

The transaction was widely reported on in the industry press. 

Legal Team:

Nikola Zahariev led the transaction for Lux Nova (English law), working together with Louisa Cilenti.

Davidson Chalmers Stewart advised on property and planning law issues (Scots law).

PNE’s in-house legal team was led by Head of Legal, Dr. Jan Messer and Senior Legal Counsel, Corinna Hartmann.

Quotes

Roland Stanze; COO of PNE: “It has taken more than 10 years from the initial idea to the current sale. It's great that this long commitment is now leading to success, and that Sallachy Wind farm will now be built and operating by 2028.”

Jan Messer kindly posted on LinkedIn: “Done. Nikola Zahariev - excellent support. You are one of the few reasons to decide for English Law 👍   Corinna Hartmann great in-house support!”.

Robert Blundell joins Lux Nova

We are delighted to announce that Robert Blundell has joined us as a Consultant Partner.  Robert brings 24 years of experience in the field of construction and engineering projects with a particular focus on Renewable Energy. 

Most recently, Robert spent the last seven years as a Legal Director of Nordex Acciona Windpower, the international wind turbine manufacturer, where he led on development projects across Northern and Eastern Europe, from the West Coast of Ireland to the Eastern border of Ukraine. 

Prior to joining Nordex he was Head of Construction, Middle East, at an international law firm.

With Lux Nova, Robert is eager to enhance and develop our services to the sustainable and renewable project development sector.

 Robert comments: “I am pleased to join the market-leading team of clean energy lawyers at Lux Nova at this exciting time for the industry.  I’m sure that together we can assist all clients in the transfer to a net zero economy.”

Lux Nova: Advisors to the Heat Pump market

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With a £7,500 Government grant for heat pumps announced in October 2023, high gas prices, and VAT already cut to 0%, heat pumps are currently all the rage. And this is very important, as heating is still one of our most carbon-intensive activities.

 Lux Nova has been supporting all aspects of the heat pump market, whether in relation to district heating, innovative network solutions, industry groups or enabling the roll-out and funding for residential customers and small businesses. Below, we have collated some of our experience:

We have been a market leader in district heating solutions for years. We have acted for house builders, funders and ESCos, and have been a part of the Triple Point Heat Networks consortium since 2018, first on the HNIP (Heat Networks Investment Project) and more recently on the GHNF (Green Heat Networks Fund). Through HNIP and GHNF, we have helped the UK Government to deploy hundreds of millions of pounds of support for low carbon heat networks.

In doing so, we have assessed hundreds of district heating grant funding applications, each with their own specific location, technology, offtake strategy and heat supply strategy.  One trend has been unmistakable: the prevalence of new projects using heat pumps is now overwhelming. Whether the heat source is mine water, sewer water, rivers, the ground or the air, heat pumps are being put to work in heat networks: they are the present and the future.

Away from traditional district heating networks, we have been advising Kensa Utilities Ltd on their innovative shared ground array offering, whereby Kensa pay for, install and own an ambient loop ground source heat pump network in a locality.  This takes responsibility away from the developer and homeowners and delivers utility-like heat to the front door of housing developments. In return for a small connection fee, each house has access to the ambient heat from the shared ground array.  A small ground source heat pump fitted in each home (in the space normally occupied by a boiler) uses this to provide heating and hot water at lower cost and greater efficiency than other solutions.

But for a nascent market, a solid regulatory framework is at least as important as financial support. This is why Lux Nova recently advised the Heat Pump Association, an industry body representing installers and suppliers of heat pumps. Our corporate structuring work has ensured that the HPA is structurally and legally set up soundly, to ensure it can continue its important work, promoting heat pumps as a low carbon solution.

We also contributed to a number of industry taskforces organised through the Green Finance Institute’s “Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings”, in relation to clean heat and demand aggregation in the residential sector.

The roll-out of heat pumps in the residential sector is challenging, but picking up pace. In the UK, the Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM) scheme will launch this year. In the first year of the scheme (April 2024 to March 2025) manufacturers’ heat pump sales must be equivalent to 4% of their fossil-fuel boiler sales that year. This requirement will increase to 6% in the mechanism’s second year. Failure to comply will result in fines. Some installers are saying that they will add the additional regulatory cost to their boiler installation charges, meaning that the cost differential in upfront installations would reduce, in favour of heat pumps.

Over recent years, we have been supporting a number of private and public initiatives, to enable and encourage small businesses and homeowners to install energy efficiency measures in their homes. Esco-in-a-box, ELPS Energy and One Zero are just three examples of our work, with others already underway and awaiting completion in 2024.

We are looking forward to supporting the heat pump market in 2024 and beyond, until we have successfully decarbonised our homes and industry.

Lux Nova ranked as a Leading Firm and 4 Partners Ranked as Leading Individuals in the Legal 500

As a purpose-driven, boutique clean-energy-only law firm of 10 Partners, we’re delighted with the sustained recognition we’re receiving in the Legal 500.

We continue to be ranked in Tier 3 of the Power category.

4 of our Partners – Tom Bainbridge, Sandy Abrahams, Nikola Zahariev and Louisa Cilenti are listed as Leading Individuals.  That is more than any other law firm in the UK.   

We are especially proud of this, given the breadth of the Power category (which, unlike us, is not only focussed on Renewables and Clean Energy but also includes Electricity and Nuclear) and the size of the firms we are competing against.

Thank you to all our clients for putting their confidence in us.  We had some great feedback, including:

‘Lux Nova has unparalleled experience in the biggest decarbonisation challenge of the 21st century: heat. They have worked on both sides of heat projects, giving them unique insight into both sides’ priorities, and further have worked to develop policy around heat too. Their deep expertise and experience makes them invaluable to work with.’

‘We worked with Louisa Cilenti of Lux Nova Partners and had an extremely positive experience in an essentially unprecedented area. In Louisa we found someone who could be both a sound advisor and a creator of practical end product amidst great ambiguity.’

‘Sandy Abrahams is phenomenal to work with. She quickly grasps the business’ needs and is able to compare this to how the other side will react. It’s like having a cheat code on our side.’

Stephen Lister and David Short also received praise, listed as key names for energy disputes and nature-based solutions respectively.

The Legal 500’s ranking for the Power category can be found here:https://www.legal500.com/c/london/projects-energy-and-natural-resources/power-including-electricity-nuclear-and-renewables/

Lux Nova advise PNE on its acquisition of a 51% stake in Bitbloom

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We are proud to have advised long-standing client PNE AG, the DAX-listed German renewables developer, on its acquisition of a majority stake in Bitbloom Ltd. 

The transaction was complex and involved four jurisdictions (England, Germany, Sweden, Mexico). It has received wide-ranging press coverage.

Lux Nova conducted the legal due diligence on Bitbloom, with a significant focus on commercial contracts and intellectual property arrangements. Alongside the acquisition documentation, we negotiated the Shareholder’s Agreement and all ancillary documentation.

 Legal Team:

-  Nikola Zahariev led the transaction for Lux Nova, with David Short providing specialist legal advice on intellectual property issues and commercial contracts.

-  Browne Jacobson LLP (Maz Dannourah) provided support on employment law issues.

-  PNE’s in-house legal team was led by Head of Legal Dr. Jan Messer and Senior Legal Counsel Julia Wojtowicz.

About Bitbloom Ltd

Bitbloom is a cutting edge software and analytics provider for the Wind industry.

It empowers wind farm owners and operators to maximise the value of their data. Through its range of proprietary software and services for data analytics, scientific computing and application development, the company aims to unleash innovation in the Wind sector and help people and projects in the sector realise their potential. Bitbloom's smart, cost-effective tools and services enable deep data analysis – without one-size-fits-all analytics and black-box solutions.

What’s next for Bitbloom?

Securing PNE’s involvement ensures significant investment for Bitbloom, which will enable Bitbloom to accelerate the development of its renewable energy monitoring platform, with an emphasis on improving the yield of wind turbines. Bitbloom's unique products focus on increasing transparency and interpretability of the complex processes in physics and AI-supported monitoring. This approach drives significant improvements of asset value and more reliable operation for their customers.

Quotes

Markus Lesser, CEO of PNE AG, said "In Bitbloom, we have found a very dynamic company that complements us perfectly. Together, we will drive PNE forward and also ensure that the overall performance of wind turbines is optimised”. 

Staffan Lindahl, one of Bitbloom’s three founders, said: “The energy transition and the consequent scaling of renewable power operations brings its own set of challenges, some of which are solved with digital systems. The technology we are building at Bitbloom is unique for the marketplace and is already used to increase asset value in Europe and beyond. With PNE’s support and network we can accelerate our efforts and extend our reach, and we now have a clear pathway to enable us to realise our ambitions”.

Nikola Zahariev commented that “We are very pleased to have supported PNE on this transaction, which was conducted in a collegiate spirit between all parties. Following our recent work for Piclo, Verna, RheEnergise and other start-ups and scale-ups, this transaction is yet another example of Lux Nova’s support for innovative contributors to the energy transition.”

Lux Nova are expanding!

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We are very pleased to announce that, since the start of this year, we have been joined by three excellent new colleagues: Lindsay Edwards, Liz Vago and Simon Holloway.

This means that we are now ten “Lux Nova Partners”.  

The expansion of the Lux Nova team continues our drive to make a positive impact for the planet through the projects we support, whilst providing our clients with high-quality, efficient advice at a fair price.

With Lindsay, Liz and Simon, we are significantly increasing Lux Nova’s ability to deliver for our clients in the following industry sectors and legal specialisms:

-       District Heating,

-       Solar, Wind and Storage project development,

-       EPC contracts,

-       PPAs,

-       Green Hydrogen,

-       Carbon Capture and Storage, and

-       Place-based investment (local net zero).

Lindsay Edwards has been involved in the clean energy and low carbon sector since 2013.  She brings experience both as a private practice lawyer (previously at Pinsent Masons and CMS) specialised in advising on emerging energy and low carbon projects, and as a policymaker at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly BEIS). 

Liz Vago brings 25 years’ experience both as a private practice lawyer and as an in-house lawyer working on large complex project-financed infrastructure projects combined with her renewable energy experience. She has advised start-ups, developers, contractors, project companies and investors on a variety of renewable energy projects in sectors which include solar, biomass, energy from waste, green hydrogen and more recently carbon capture and storage projects. 

Simon Holloway focuses on advising sponsors, project companies and lenders on the construction and O&M aspects in the renewable energy space. Simon has over 25 years’ in-house and private practice experience, having worked previously with Tesla Energy BV, Trinity International LLP, Allen & Overy and Masons.

Nikola Zahariev included in this year’s “Hot 100” list of lawyers in the UK

We are very happy to announce that Nikola Zahariev has been included in this year’s “Hot 100” list of lawyers in the UK, published by The Lawyer magazine. The full article and link can be found here.

Nikola commented that “I am honoured and humbled to have been featured in this list. All of us at Lux Nova will continue to drive positive environmental impact through our legal work, industry roles and financial contributions.”

This follows an article published by The Lawyer last year (read it here), highlighting Lux Nova’s journey to date.

Lux Nova feature in the Lawyer: "We're not just environmental lawyers, we're environmentalists"

We were very happy to be interviewed by The Lawyer magazine recently. Please see below for the full article. It paints a nice picture of how Lux Nova came into being almost 8 years ago, of our journey since then, and how we are continuing to strive for an ever greater positive impact, in the best way that each of us can.

We hope you enjoy the read.

Advising Ecotricity on its innovative VPP, and local energy supply services with Gower Power.

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Lux Nova are proud to have supported Ecotricity Group on its innovative Virtual Power Plant, and local energy supply services with Gower Power.

As we previously reported, Ecotricity’s “Virtual Power Plant” offering is now up and running, and Lux Nova are proud to have assisted Ecotricity with this innovative product line.

 

As an exciting step on this journey, Ecotricity and Gower Power Solar Storage CIC (GPSS) have entered into a cooperation, which will include VPP services from Gower Power’s 1MW solar park and Tesla battery system at Killan Fach Farm, Dunvant, Wales. Read the news report here.

 

The arrangement will enable Gower Power and Ecotricity to offer services to the National Grid, the balancing market and other buyers of “flexibility”.  This development is significant, as enhanced flexibility on the National Grid is a critical enabler for the take-up of more renewable energy generation.

 

As long-time supporters of decentralised, democratised and community energy, we are particularly pleased that this transaction will also enable Gower Power to sell electricity to local customers, as explained here. Ecotricity will provide the required energy and customer services, and top-up electricity supply when needed.

As a community interest company, the profits of GPSS will be reinvested into the local community.

 

The project was made possible with support from Welsh Government, with European Regional Development Funds.