King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin is advising tidal developer Alderney Renewable Energy Limited (ARE) on the new joint venture for the development of a 300MW tidal array in the Alderney race.  The joint venture is with leading tidal turbine developer OpenHydro, a subsidiary of DCNS, the French manufacturing group, which is constructing a new plant in Cherbourg to make the tidal turbines.  The joint venture agreement was signed and announced in Cherbourg in early April.

The tidal array will be one of the largest renewable energy projects in European coastal waters, consisting of 150 turbines at 2.0MW each and will produce enough power for over 150,000 homes in the UK and France, as well as supplying the island of Alderney with 100% of its energy requirements.

The new project company, Race Tidal Limited, is to carry out further research and environmental impact assessments before obtaining final consents from the Alderney regulatory and governmental authorities.  The array is expected to achieve full scale deployment from 2020 and will be capable of accessing the new France-Alderney- Britain electricity interconnector (FAB Link) being jointly developed by ARE with Transmission Investment LLP.

Martin Bowen, Corporate partner at King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin, said: “This project is incredibly positive news for the European clean energy market and, we believe, will mark the beginning of a remarkable new phase in offshore clean energy generation.  We wish all the partners and stakeholders in the project every success.”

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin previously advised ARE on the FAB Link interconnector project which will enable tidal power from Alderney to be exported to European markets and electricity to be traded between France and Britain and is expected to reach completion in line with the Race Tidal array.

The King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin team was led by Corporate partner Martin Bowen along with Energy & Infrastructure partner Rinku Bhadoria and associate Steven Mackay.