Sandy has over 15 years’ experience specialising in clean and low carbon energy projects in the UK and internationally and UK climate change legislation. She has extensive experience in the district heating sector, advising across government, local authorities, developers and utility companies and some of her renewable energy experience includes ground breaking deals such as the development of the first utility scale wind farm in the Middle East, advising on the first portfolio of utility scale solar farms in Jordan and many of the UK’s largest district heating projects.

She advises on the full range of project documents required for clean and low carbon energy development and on all aspects of climate change and energy legislation in the UK. She is also actively involved in policy development in the UK, and is recognised for her work at the forefront of industry development of transformational models encouraging distributed and decarbonised energy generation and supply. She is currently a director of Flex Assure, an industry body established to ensure consumer protection in the flexibility supply market. 

She has a following of loyal clients, including LendLease, Energetik, Vattenfall and Piclo who have praised her thorough, professional and practical approach and her wealth of energy sector experience.

Examples of sandy’s recent experience include:

• DISTRICT HEATING PROJECTS -  advising clients including Vattenfall, Kensa, Pinnacle Power, Lendlease, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Telford Homes, Barratts, L&G, Guinness Partnership and One Housing on strategy and approach to district heating project delivery, support in negotiation and development of the suite of DH project documentation, including heat offtakes, customer supply agreements, concession agreements, design & build and operation & maintenance agreements and metering and billing agreements. Producing the industry standard SOMS documentation for BEIS.

• ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO MARKET – advising clients such as West Sussex County Council on their pathfinder BISEPs project, Piclo on their first of kind collaborations with every UK Distribution Network Operator on the Flex Platform, Clean Energy Prospector on their integrated private wire and renewable energy generation model for new build estates, community group Energy Local on their innovative “behind the meter” local balancing model and 10:10 on their “Riding Sunbeams” (solar into the electric railways) project, Eastbourne Council on “Licence Lite”, WPD on models of peer-to-peer trading and local energy markets.

• UK RENEWABLES  - advising a range of developers of domestic solar, wind, hydro and storage projects, including Mongoose Energy on a 15MW solar farm with co-located batteries,  Leapfrog Finance in relation to the 4.1MW Ernsettle project in Plymouth, Verderg Renewables on their new low-head hydro power technology, Charity Bank on the Sandford Hydro project developed by Low Carbon Hub.

• EMERGING MARKET RENEWABLES – developing and delivering comprehensive training to the 15 ECOWAS countries in Africa on the contents of a “bankable” power purchase agreement for wind and solar projects, advising a Caribbean country on the amendments required to their legislation to integrate renewable energy, advising an international developer on all project related documentation for the delivery of the first utility scale wind farm in Jordan and a developer on the documentation to develop grid connected solar in Jordan, that were subsequently used by various programmes in Jordan and Egypt as template documentation, advising on Ugandan and Nigerian climate change bills, advising on the commercial structuring and PPA arrangements for off-grid and mini-grid solar in Kenya.

Sandy is also dedicated to using her skills in a pro-bono capacity, including:

• Flex Assure: director of this industry body set up to establish minimum consumer protection in the market for flexibility services. 

• WWF: working with the WWF UK legal team on a 6-month, part-time basis;

• LRI: Voluntary Legal Advisor since 2012 to the Legal Response Initiative (a group providing legal advice to participants in the UNFCCC negotiations), providing assistance such as guidance on fossil fuel lobbying and developing the Ugandan and Nigerian Climate Change Bills;

• Power for the People: former trustee and pro-bono legal advisor to PfP, a UK charity developing projects in Africa, using renewable energy as a backbone for sustainable development, healthcare and education

• Lawyers for the Future: an initiative to establish a code of environmental and social ethics within the legal sector in order to encourage divestment of services from environmentally and socially damaging transactions

Previous work history:

Before co-founding Lux Nova Partners, Sandy was a partner in the Climate Change & Energy team at Temple Bright LLP, having previously worked at Nabarro LLP (now CMS) for seven years.

qualifications

• Solicitor admitted 2009

• Post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice – Commendation (College of Law, London) 2006

• BA (Hons) Law (2:1 Cambridge University) 2005

INDUSTRY ROLES

• 2020 –  to date: director of Flex Assure, an industry body concerned with establishing a code of best practice for the demand side response sector

• 2019 – to date: member of the Flexibility Forum, an industry body lobbying for fairer market rules for flexibility providers

• 2018 – to date: part of the HNIP Consortium delivery partner for district heating finance

• 2009 – to date: Member of the Association for Distributed Energy

• 2009 – to date: Member of the UK Environmental Law Association’s Climate Change & Energy Working Party.

INDUSTRY AWARDS

•  Association for Decentralised Energy’s Consultancy Project of the Year 2016 and Research and Consultancy Project of the Year 2018.

• Business Green Leaders Award.

• Next Generation Partner 2022 and 2023, Legal 500.